Maximum effort for minimum gain
Rick, You've probably already seen many of these, but here's a smattering of Rube Goldberg links for your class. SITES Official Rube Goldberg site (with small Art Gallery) http://www.rubegoldberg.com/ Purdue University Rube Goldberg Contest (the first university to start the modern contests in 1987) http://www.purdue.edu/UNS/rube/rube.index.html Photos from past contests: http://www.purdue.edu/UNS/rube/rube.pix.html Theta Tau (engineering fraternity) Rube Goldberg Contest (with videos) http://www.rubemachine.com/ Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rube_Goldberg http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rube_Goldberg_machine Google Image (pictures of his original cartoons): http://images.google.com/images?q=Rube-Goldberg VIDEOS There are many, many Rube Goldberg contraption videos on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=rube+goldberg For Example: Probably the most famous of all the modern Rube Goldberg inventions is Honda Accord's "Cog" made in 2003: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uyN9y0BEMqc Here's more about Cog: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cog_(television_commercial) And a fun "Making of Cog" video that shows the extensive planning that goes into such an effort: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kI6geb2gVQw Here's an elaborate Japanese Rube Goldberg device for making a bowl of Ramen noodles with a raw egg on top: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kvdq8cRNBM Here's the 2006 Mythbuster's Christmas Special with their own version of a Rube Goldberg contraption: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCYg_gz4fDo Here's the one-and-only Rube Goldberg himself in a 1940 short film for the petroleum industry called "Something For Nothing": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3LiXJOQ8I0 And in a similar vein, here's a 1933 Fleischer cartoon called "Betty Boop's Crazy Inventions" inspired by Goldberg and the 1933 Chicago World's Fair: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uup2QBqkXug http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betty_Boop's_Crazy_Inventions