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Purdue Claims World Record Goldberg Machine

Posted by samzenpus on from the keeping-it-complex dept.

With 244 steps The Time Machine, built by by members of the Purdue Society of Professional Engineers and Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers, took first place and broke a world record at the 24th Annual National Rube Goldberg Machine Contest. From the article: "It starts with the Big Bang, re-creates the extinction of the dinosaurs, holds a jousting competition, flips over an album, and simulates World War II, a shuttle launch, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and even the alleged apocalypse in 2012. In its precisely executed review of history, 'The Time Machine,' a Rube Goldberg contraption built by members of the Purdue Society of Professional Engineers and Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers, incorporates a record-breaking 244 steps—all to water a single flower."

15 of 79 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Video? by Kenoli · · Score: 2

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdPDn1KUz_A

  2. Pffft by proverbialcow · · Score: 2

    It should at least break something at the end...so there's a BIG CRUNCH!

    Thanks, I'll be here all weekend. Be sure to tip your waitstaff.

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  3. And in the end... by Genrou · · Score: 2

    ... the answer was 42.

  4. Not Pointless Enough by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I don't think that the steps to the end are useless enough to be a goldberg machine. Everything it does presents a sort of storyline, so it is more of a mechanical play. It's just too useful, or perhaps not abstract enough.

    1. Re:Not Pointless Enough by 0100010001010011 · · Score: 4, Informative

      It was. I watched this one live at the regional competition. Each step was started with a electromechanical actuator and each one ended on a switch. Each of the stages had microswitches when it was 'reset' and the back panel had lights that lit up when the stage was reset. It allowed it to be debugged easily and if a stage got stuck they could skip it with the switches.

  5. Great future by chill · · Score: 3, Funny

    With efficiencies like that, they have a bright future in government.

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  6. Lego Machine by ShavedOrangutan · · Score: 5, Interesting

    On Makezine yesterday:

    http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2011/04/elaborate-and-mesmerizing-lego-great-ball-contraption.html

    This is eight minutes of pure awesome.

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  7. Re:Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers? by jtownatpunk.net · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Note the complete lack of Hispanics in the picture and lack of Hispanic names in the article. It's probably just a way to apply for minority grants and such.

  8. Re:La Raza by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    Because that would be racist. Just like a "Society of Female Professional Engineers" would be ok but a "Society of Male Professional Engineers" would be sexist and discriminatory.

  9. Let me guess...a film student made the video? by RapmasterT · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The video lost all perspective of what a Rube Goldberg machine is about. The edits, cuts, overly zoomed and segmented action completely invalidates the purpose of the exercise. Was it a seamless execution of 244 sequential steps...or was it 244 individual actions filmed and edited together...can't tell from the video can ya. There's at least one segment that had a clear failure (the ice age downhill slalom jammed).

    All in all, it was (probably) a great engineering effort that was ruined by someone trying to exercise clever video skills.

    1. Re:Let me guess...a film student made the video? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

      There's a much better take available at Purdue's newsroom. It looks like it didn't run quite perfectly, though (the timeline arrow never hit the end).

  10. Ugly by O('_')O_Bush · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The amount of electrical devices (drills, actuators, etc) that are merely switched on and the seeming lack of creativity with the items in the machine makes it ugly, imo. That and the large amounts of spray-paint.

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  11. Re:Video? by pugugly · · Score: 2

    It doesn't feel like my concept of a rube goldberg machine. I had aspect, but it was more a half dozen short rube goldberg chains that were lined up in a raw than the single long chain of cause and effect that defines a rube goldberg machine to me.

    Pug

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  12. I still prefer... by Bloody+Peasant · · Score: 2

    ... the OK Go Rube Goldberg machine. It will be a long time before anyone beats that.

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  13. Virtual by Tablizer · · Score: 2

    Next up to conquer is virtual RGM's......oh wait, MS-Office.

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