Wired Differently: Rube Goldberg Machines

In the Summer Holidays, I, along with my Friend, planned to make a simple Rube Goldberg Machine, which sounded exciting! This article is the first in a series of three.

Like doing this the 'hard' way just to extract some FUN outta' borin' stuff? Well, A Rube Goldberg Machine is what you need to do just the same.

Don't go by the name (Rube Goldberg was a cartoonist, btw)... Rube Goldberg Machines are NOT complicated at all. You might have also 'built' a RG Machine out of your own, without even realising it.

Well, that's because a RG Machine is meant to do an extremely simple job, in an overtly-complicated manner. It does this via Chain Reactions, incorporating household, easy-to-find stuff! For example, there can be a Rube Goldberg as big as a room to achieve something as meager as Pricking a Balloon or Switching on your Nintendo DS!

Before moving on, and in case you are confused, I'll show you Rube Goldberg Machines made by our childhood heroes, the cartoon characters. Mr. Bean, Wil E Coyote & Road Runner and Scooby Doo have featured RG Machines before!

Here, an Alarm Clock rings, triggering a mechanism which shoots a burst of hot water in the pipe, which finally reaches Mr. Bean's legs, waking him up! Well, he even could've let the Alarm Clock ring, instead he decided to complicate things!

Here, in another failed attempt to kill Road Runner, Wil E Coyote uses an elaborate RG Machine, which, OBVIOUSLY fails.

In media, the band OK Go's promotional music video for This Too Shall Pass also features a two-story Rube Goldberg.

This one's JUST SIMPLY AWESOME!

Why something complicated as RG Machines were introduced in the first place has to do with the 'Machine Age', which came at the turn of the 21st century. Electricity, Running Water, Machines interested people, and new mechanical devices used for simplifying life were flooding Patent Offices. And then a cartoonist comes along, with cartoons depicting complex machines performing simple tasks, and the hobby of making RG Machines is born! Rube Goldberg's cartoons are filled with ingenious complicated devices. The below Image depicts a 'Moth Killer' with steps labelled from A to T!

Besides this, many schools worldwide (NOT IN INDIA) assign students Rube Goldberg machines as science projects, because they wonderfully explain simple physical concepts, and use simple machines like Levers, Inclined Planes and Pulleys.

1987 saw Rube Goldberg contests, which require a team construct a RG Machine from materials given to them on the spot!

My interest towards Rube Goldberg Machines came about one boring day in the holidays, when I Googled for 'Chain Reaction' and was directed to the This Too Shall Pass video! After browsing through more videos, I decided to make one myself, along with my friend Mangesh. This was one article in a series of three, with the next one featuring out RG Machine!

Below are some of my favourite 'Wacky', 'Original' cartoons made by Rube Goldberg himself showing more RG stuff! XD! Don't Worry about the image size, I purposely made then so you could enjoy the cartoon strip!

1. A Mousetrap