Comments on: Record-breaking Rube Goldberg inflates, then pops balloon in 300 steps

By: Stephen Anderson

Stephen Anderson — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 06:31:00 +0000

How many steps would it have taken to have used a tripod?

By: Andrew Kane

Andrew Kane — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 17:53:00 +0000

Makers gonna make.

By: Sam Pourasghar

Sam Pourasghar — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 17:09:00 +0000

That’s great, but can it make breakfast? Or cut your hair? Or shoot you?

By: guanto

guanto — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 14:29:00 +0000

Interstitials for a kids’ program called “Pitagora Suitchi” or I guess “Pitagora Switch”, “Pythagoras Switch(es)” etc. by NHK, Japan’s national public broadcaster.

http://www.nhk.or.jp/kids/program/pitagora.html

Edit: here’s the Japanese name of the series for your copy-and-pasting pleasure; yields a lot more YouTube hits than transcriptions: ピタゴラスイッチ

By: Little John

Little John — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 13:52:00 +0000

What are these, Noah? Commercial breaks/station IDs for Japanese TV?

By: Little John

Little John — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 13:50:00 +0000

…the best part of this video is unquestionably the roar of the crowd.

Agreed. This is evidently something they did strictly for themselves and accidentally captured part of on video, which, as an afterthought, they posted to YouTube.

I see balls rolling, levers rotating, fruit being sacrificed, and hidden panels rotating into and out of view, but there is little evidence that these steps are in any way related to each other, much less what mechanisms connect them.

Rube Goldberg machine: A device (or set of unrelated devices, AFAICT) requiring a ridiculous amount of time and effort in order to achieve the simple goal of boring unititiated spectators for 2 minutes and 17 seconds.

By: suburbanhick

suburbanhick — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 13:19:00 +0000

Perfect except for one thing: This machine actually DOES something.

By: noah django

noah django — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 08:45:00 +0000

the commenters to this thread seem to enjoy a more back-to-the-roots themed RG machine? feast your eyes, ladies and gentlemen:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2C-PWHpPoI

By: Jon Bakos

Jon Bakos — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 03:40:00 +0000

And decent sound quality. Ye gods.

By: telechi

telechi — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 01:51:00 +0000

I’ve personally found this to be the case with a great many well-crafted machines like this…the transitions happen rather quickly, and aren’t always immediately apparent. My favorite video as a kid was The Way Things Go http://icarusfilms.com/cat97/t-z/the_way_.html …I must have watched it hundreds of times, if not thousands, and still don’t fully understand every single point. I guess that’s part of the appeal, such great precision and planning is required to make it all go so flawlessly.

By: KBert

KBert — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 01:47:00 +0000

I’m more impressed with the awesome amateur efforts, indeed!

By: politeruin

politeruin — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 01:37:00 +0000

Heath Robinson – he did it first.

By: timquinn

timquinn — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 01:36:00 +0000

back to the pron

By: devophill

devophill — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 01:11:00 +0000

Move on to what?

By: beaker

beaker — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 01:10:00 +0000

Rube Goldberg machines have now officially jumped the shark. This is like watching Waterworld–bloated, unnecessary, pointless. But some good special effects.

By: Bill Walsh

Bill Walsh — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 01:10:00 +0000

Pffft. Disqualified for using electricity.

By: Mark A

Mark A — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 01:01:00 +0000

I also don’t see how one step led to another. It just looked like a bunch of unrelated things happening. Leave it to engineers to make something amazing that is only for their own techno prowess, but leaves everyone else scratching their heads.

By: Rider

Rider — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 00:52:00 +0000

First rule of Rube Goldbergs, don’t step in front of the camera.

By: timquinn

timquinn — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 00:35:00 +0000

OK, someone needs to make one of these goldberg videos of a pop band ski jumping over a steam punk shark.

Then we can play it as a loop and move on.

By: mtdna

mtdna — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 00:25:00 +0000

If this isn’t a perfect metaphor for the current US Congress, I don’t know what the hell is.

By: Alpacaman

Alpacaman — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 00:14:00 +0000

WOOOOOOOOOOAARRRRRGHHHHHGWWWOOOOOYYYEEAAAHHHWOOOOCOMEONYOUVEGOTTHISWOOOOOOOOOARRRRRGGGGHHHHH

By: terrycarroll

terrycarroll — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 00:11:00 +0000

Pretty good. But I didn’t see a calculator verifier (with a “check” key) anywhere. How do we know if the Fun Pass used was authentic?

By: suburbanhick

suburbanhick — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 23:49:00 +0000

For some reason, this makes me think of trying to get my 7 year-old to brush her teeth and hair.

By: srose278

srose278 — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 23:43:00 +0000

I feel like it’s worth noting that Purdue has graduated a fairly large number of people who have gone on to become astronauts. I guess this is what engineers can do in their spare time until we start sending people back up into space!

By: Jeffrey Baker

Jeffrey Baker — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 23:28:00 +0000

Record for decent videography still quite safe.

By: theophrastvs

theophrastvs — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 23:08:00 +0000

define “step”. i gotcher gazillion step balloon inflater right here; which starts when the muscles for my diaphragm to fill my lungs are fueled with cheetos™ and low cost beer like substance… then ATP is synthesized… several monkeys are involved… and you can be sure that i count posting the whole unseemly affair to youtube as one of the steps too!