Physics in Music Videos – Be Amazed by Rube Goldberg

Our resident guest blogger, Joanne, tells us about the amazing physics involved in Rube Goldberg’s machines.  Watch and be amazed.

By Joanne Arcand

One of the classic, universal ‘wow’ moments is the reaction both adults and children get when watching a Rube Goldberg machine in action.  For those who are new to the concept, Rube Goldberg  was a cartoonist who drew amazingly complex machines to accomplish simple tasks.  The machines have been used in a Honda commercial, various school projects on youtube, a mythbusters episode, and many videos by a band named OK Go (as long as you don’t consider ‘h-e-double-hockey-sticks’ a swear word, this video has no profanity). 

What makes these machines uber cool is the combination of toys, gravity, and occasionally fire to accomplish one very simple task.  Often, it isn’t even a task that actually needs doing.  In physics class, we use these as demonstrations of inertia, conservation of energy, and the different types of motion.  At the dinner table or toy room, contests to make these machines can take hours.  Aside from the obvious science links, here are some other ways to use Rube Goldberg machines.

Top 5 Ways to Use Rube Goldberg Machines

1.  Make a multi-person machine.  Sure, you could just make a big line and poke each other until you get to the last person who could…say… shut the door.  Why not make it more dramatic  than that?  Add sound effects, act like machines, and cover more floor space.  The wackier, the better!
2. Draw a machine and use it as a prompt for writing.  How does it work?  What happened on the day that part went missing?  What happened to the inventor after she showed the machine to the press?
3. Make a song about the wackiest machine ever.  Sing it into garage band and add sound effects.
4. Animate the machine using ToonBoon or other computer animation software.  Obviously not as complex as this one (who has that kind of time??), but it’s amazing what kids can come up with.
5. Play The Impossible Machine, a card game by GlowFly Games.  The cards are colour coded and have symbols to represent the input and output needed for each section of the machine.  A review is here if you’re interested.

If you get inspired by Rube Goldberg machines, there is a contest every year.  I don’t know if Rube Goldberg ever expected people to seriously attempt any of his machines, but I’m sure wherever he is right now, he’s laughing at all the kids thinking that they’re just playing around when really they’re getting “physic-al”.