Have you ever heard about a Rube Goldberg machine?

Rube Goldberg: a comically involved, complicated invention, laboriously contrived to perform a simple operation –Webster’s New World Dictionary

Just as it is defined, it is a goofy complicated machine made to do a simple task such as blowing up a balloon, filling a glass of water, or even just to turn on the lights. The first start of the Rube Goldberg machine is a cartoon, one drawn by Reuben Lucius Goldberg (Rube Goldberg). As a cartoonist he did not make such machines himself but drew such goofy devices just for a few giggles and laughs. However his legacy lives on today and there are a variety of contests off and online for such gizmos.

Contests are majorly held in the United States, categorized by region and age. Every contest has a theme, a theme being the final step of the process that the machine has to perform. The 2014 college national 1st place Rube Goldberg machine was built by the students of Purdue. The theme of the competition was to raise the zipper of a jacket. The machine named “Getting Ready for Work” was made not only to raise the zipper of a jacket but also put on cologne, turn on music, make breakfast and check on your sons and daughters homework. All of those tasks are performed in one single process triggered by putting a quarter into a bubblegum machine. Machines that enter such annual competitions usually have 20~50 steps along the way before it performs its final task. However in the Guinness Book of World Records, the most steps that a Rube Goldberg machine performs, is a little over 300 steps. Also built by the students of Purdue, the students spent nearly 5000hours to make a device that could perform all of the themes that the annual competitions had asked the student for the past 20 years such as peeling an orange, making a hamburger, sharpening a pencil etc.

Although such complicated machines that enter competitions are hard to make for individuals, the Rube Goldberg machine is a popular hobby for students and adults all around the world. With social media and Youtube, it is easy to search and enjoy countless number of such machines made by people all around the world. It is a marvelous hobby that stems from a cartoon cut of one imaginative mind. I propose all of you to watch a few clips of these machines and try simple gadgets for yourself to spark your imagination.