Rube Goldberg Contest

Open window (A) and fly kite (B). String (C) lifts small door (D) allowing moths (E) to escape and eat red flannel shirt (F). As weight of shirt becomes less, shoe (G) steps on switch (H) which heats electric iron (I) and burns hole in pants (J). Smoke (K) enters hole in tree (L), smoking out opossum (M) which jumps into basket (N), pulling rope (O) and lifting cage (P), allowing woodpecker (Q) to chew wood from pencil (R), exposing lead. Emergency knife (S) is always handy to sharpen the pencil in case opossum or the woodpecker gets sick and can't work.

Who is Rube Goldberg?

Rube Goldberg, (1883-1970), was a Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist, sculptor, and author, and engineer. Rube Goldberg created inventions in his cartoons that discovered harder ways to achieve easy results. His work will endure because he gave priority to simple human needs and treasured basic human values. He was sometimes sceptical about technology, which contributed to making his own mechanical inventions primitive and full of human, plant and animal parts. While most machines work to make difficult tasks simple, his inventions made simple tasks amazingly complex. Dozens of arms, wheel, gears, handles, cups, and rods were put in motion: by balls, canary cages, pails, boots, bathtubs, paddles and live animals for the simple tasks of squeezing an orange for juice, or closing a window if it should start to rain before one gets home.

Goldberg's drawings of absurdly-connected machines accomplishing by extremely complex, roundabout means what seemingly could be done simply has meant that his name has become associated with any convoluted solution to perform a simple task.

What is the Rube Goldberg Project?

Quite simply you are to build a Rube Goldberg machine. A good Rube Goldberg machine incorporates the everyday machines people are used to seeing and connects them in ways that may seem idiotic or ingenious. It will be your mission to construct a machine that uses at least 15 (senior 3) or 20 (senior 4) individual steps to complete an assigned task.

Build a Rube Goldberg Machine.

Each team plans its machine in its own way. Some teams will try to plan their whole machine before starting to build it; others just dive in head first. Maybe the best way is to use a little of both approaches. In the end you will need a detailed description of the machine for the contest judges, and as you'll see, much of your early plans for the machine will have changed by the time you finish building it.

The materials you use are the most important components of the machine. See what you have around the house, raid your old toy chest, pick through all those appliances Dad has been meaning to fix, but most importantly, USE THEM. Rube knew no bounds when he created his machines, and you should take the same attitude. Follow the adage "Nothing is impossible, if you try." Your imagination is your only limit.

Rules For The Contest.

Each team must submit five copies of a detailed description of its machine by 9:00 a.m. on the due date. One point will be deducted for each copy less than five. The description must include the names of the team members and a step-by-step description of the machine from first step to last step with all steps numbered. The description must describe the physics behind each step and be legible and concise.
Dimensions of the table are: 8 x 2.5 feet. The machines should be no longer than the 8 feet and can be up to 4 feet wide as long as you have a base to put on the table. You should be able to reach the top of your machine while standing on the ground.
The machine must complete a full cycle in no more than 9 minutes. A full cycle includes a first run to completion of the task, a complete reset, and a second run to completion of the task.
During the contest, each team may claim one free restart of a run without penalty.
Judging will be on a 100 point basis.
All machines will be displayed on tables provided.
A machine may not incorporate any live animal
Each machine must be safe. Any questionable items must be given prior consent by the teacher.
On each run of the machine, points will be deducted for any human intervention according to the following schedule:
- 2 points will be deducted for the first intervention.
- An additional 4 points will be deducted for a second intervention.
- An additional 8 points will be deducted for a third intervention.
- No more that 15 points will be deducted for interventions on a single run
If a human intervention on a machine in motion skips any steps, 1 point will be deducted for each step skipped.
Any loose or flying objects must remain within the set boundaries of the machine.
No combustible fluids, explosives, open flames, or hazardous materials are allowed.
Once a teams official run is completed, the team is encouraged to make demonstration runs for the audience.
Following the contest, each team is responsible for removing its machine and related debris.
All decisions of the judges are final.

Building a Successful Rube Goldberg machine.

The machine works. When it starts, it runs all the way through to completion with no human intervention and completes the required task.
It has a unifying theme. Examples of good themes include food, farm equipment, kitchen gadgets, outer space. the number of possible themes is limited only by your imagination.
No team is penalized for having electrically powered steps, but mechanical steps are more in the spirit of Rube Goldberg's machines and tend to impress judges more.
It has clearly visible steps. On many machines, it's hard to follow all the steps. Judges appreciate machines that are laid our so that as many of the steps as possible are clearly visible in sequence.

"Rube Goldberg Machine Contest" and "Rube Goldberg" are licensed trademarks of Rube Goldberg Inc.