Rube Goldberg
Rube Goldberg machine, a complex contraption
designed to achieve a simple task.
If you want to try to build a crazy chain reaction yourself, the first thing you need to do is choose a task.
Possible Tasks
Water a plant
Shut a door
Turn something on or off (a light, a radio, an alarm)
Ring a bell
Break an egg
Sort coins
Make a ball go into a hole
Who was Rube Goldberg?
RUBE GOLDBERG (1883-1970) was a cartoonist, an inventor, and the only person ever to be listed in Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary as an adjective. Of the nearly 50,000 cartoons he drew in his lifetime, Rube is best known for the zany contraptions of Professor Butts. These inventions, also known as Rube Goldberg Machines, solved a simple task in the most overcomplicated, inefficient, and hilarious way possible.
Rube Goldberg lives on in pop culture and is referenced daily in both print and digital media. His name is searchable, hash-taggable, and at best viral. But nowhere is his legacy more celebrated than through the competitions that bear his name.
What is a Rube Goldberg machine?
A Rube Goldberg Machine (RGM) is a crazy contraption which accomplishes a simple task in the most complicated and funniest way possible! Based on the “invention” cartoons of the famous, Pulitzer Prize-Winning Cartoonist, Rube Goldberg. His drawings and imagined machines are at the heart of the Rube Goldberg Machine Contest. They use everyday items (mostly junk!), they tell a story, and most important of all — they make you laugh!