Rube Goldberg was an American inventor and cartoonist, renowned for his cartoons of overly complex machines. Now, nerds everywhere host Rube Goldberg Machine contests to attempt to build incredibly complex machines to complete incredibly simple tasks.
I entered into such contests during each of my four years as an undergraduate at UC Berkeley, along with my fraternity brothers. Here are two of our machines that won first place.
Goal: Dispense Hand Sanitizer
- Ball rolls down coaster
- Bellagio fountain turns on
- Eiffel tower elevator lifts up
- Luxor lights turn on
- LED lights turn on
- Evel Knievel crashes into Coliseum column
- Columns fall
- Mirage volcano erupts
- Ball rolls through traffic
- Water balloon pops and flows into red mixer
- Red mixer turns blue
- Cup releases dice catapult
- Dice roll through craps shoot
- Roulette wheel spins
- Blank plate falls
- Hand levitates cards
- Plate rises with writing
- Texas Hold'em "Draw and "Turn" cards revealed
- "River" card reveals
- Chips fall into cup
- Cup pulls slot machine handle and releases it
- Spindles spin then stop
- Hand sanitizer dispenses
Goal: Hammer a Nail
- [Lord of the Rings] Orcish dominoes fall
- [LotR] "Ring" is pushed into volcano
- [LotR] Mount Doom erupts
- [Indiana Jones] Cup full of "lava" triggers boulder trap
- [IJ] Boulder rolls down passageway
- [IJ] Indie jumps to avoid boulder
- [Charlie and the Chocolate Factory] Indie's platform completes a circuit
- [CatCF] Willy Wonka's Gumball Elevator lifts everlasting gobstoppers
- [CatCF] Gobstoppers fall into a collector
- [Frankenstein] Lightning generator spins
- [F] Lightning strikes, causing Frankenstein's Monster to awaken
- [The Matrix] Neo is scared into doing a backflip
- [Back to the Future] The DeLorean races downhill, lighting "flames" in its wake, triggering
- [Avengers] Hulk's fist falls, hitting Captain America's shield
- [A] Captain America's shield spins, hitting Thor's hammer
- [A] Thor's hammer falls, driving Loki (the nail) into the platform