Rube Goldberg: A Staple of Engineering

Jake Bakovsky

What is a Rube Goldberg?Two meanings:The machineThe man behind it

Who is Rube Goldberg?US CartoonistEngineer

Automatic Toothpaste Dispenser

Purdue University Annual Rube Goldberg Contest•Task provided•Uses 20 entities or more•Winners need to use as many unnecessary parts as possible

University of Wisconsin

Sponsors of Rube Goldberg ContestBAE systemsBosh Group IncBoseBPLockheed MartinLutron Electronics…and much more

Components Of a Rube Goldberg.

Use your imagination!

Relevance to EngineeringUse of simple machinesPhysics PrinciplesTrigonometry Kinetic MotionVelocityVectors Equilibrium

First Entity

Development

Rabbit

My Rube GoldbergMy Video

Works Cited C, Thomas. Example of a Rube Goldberg that opens a curtain. Youtube. Web. 2 Mar. 2010. <http://www.chilloutzone.de//

player.swf?b=10&l=197&u=ILLUMllSOOAvIF//P_LxP92A42lCHCeeWCejXnHAS/>. This video shows an example of a

Rube Goldberg someone made that goes throughout they’re entire house. It is similar to the one that I will need to design to

dispense pet food to my hungry rabbit.

Felix, Kathy. “Rube Goldberg.” Rube Goldberg. N.p., n.d. Web. 2 Mar. 2010. <http://www.rubegoldberg.com/>. This website

has information on the contests at Perdue University and about Rube Goldberg the person. It helps me relate the fact that

students use the principle of energy transfer and engineering in Rube Goldbergs and compete against each other.

Frost, James. “Ok Go- This too shall pass -RGM version.” Syyn Labs. Youtube. Web. 3 Mar. 2010. <http://www.youtube.com/?

v=qybUFnY7Y8w>. This music video is an extremely large and well constructed Rube Goldberg that is very elaborate. This

video will help me generate ideas for when I make my own Rube Goldberg.

Works Cited George, George W, and Thomas R George. Rube Goldberg. New York, NY: King Features Syndicate, 1983. Print. This book

has various cartoons and ideas that Rube Goldberg drew in his lifetime

Haury, David L, and Peter Rillero. “Perspectives of Hands on Science Teaching.” NCREL. The ERIC Clearinghouse for

Science, Mathematics, and Environmental Education., 30 June 1995. Web. 8 Mar. 2010. <http://www.ncrel.org/s///////.htm>.

This website is sponsored by a teaching organization and is written by scholarly authors. They are analyzing the effects of

different learning strategies.

Wolfe, Maynard Frank. Rube Goldberg Inventions. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster, 2000. Print. This book describes the

biography of Rube Goldberg, various cartoons he drew, and example of students making Rube Goldberg’s of their own. it is

very illustrative and provides information that I will need to write my paper.

Zside. “Japanese Rube Goldberg Contest.” 11 Mar. 2006. Youtube. Web. 2 Mar. 2010. <http://www.youtube.com/?

v=1kvdq8cRNBM>. This video is of a Japanese Rube Goldberg contest to fix a Ramon noodle dinner. It is extremely intricate

and involves many transfers of energy. The basic physics problems are evident in this video.

Works Cited "Teams to Vie for Brightest Idea at Regional Rube Goldberg Contest." AScribe Science News

Service, Jan 30, 2009 pNA. Science Resource Center. Gale. 18 March 2010

http://galenet.galegroup.com

"Purdue Students Excel in Rube Goldberg Inefficiency Competition." AScribe Science News

Service, March 6, 2006 pNA. Science Resource Center. Gale. 18 March 2010

http://galenet.galegroup.com

"Statics and Equilibrium." Science of Everyday Things. Online. Detroit: Gale, 2009. Science

Resource Center. Gale. 18 March 2010 http://galenet.galegroup.com