Let's build a Rube Goldberg machine!

Mundane Pointless Stuff I Must Share (MPSIMS)
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Alright folks, don’t ask me where this idea came from. I’m sleep deprived and going through a bit of life changes so my mind is working in funny ways but I thought it might be interesting to see what kind of lunacy we might come up with if we decided to build a Rube Goldberg machine.

For those who don’t know what a Rube Goldberg Machine, Rube Goldberg was a cartoonist that did a series of comics of machines to do very routine things in the most ludicrous ways. Usually involving boots on sticks, balls, lights, scaring birds and various other totally zany innovations. There are even modern day Rube Goldberg competitions. Teams are given a task and are judged on style, complexity and whether or not their machine actually works.

So we’re a bunch of smart people aren’t we? In fact, perhaps the greatest think tank ever assembled? I’d say so. Bias be damned.

How this is going to work - We need to count steps, without repeating ourselves, and eventually reach an endpoint. So the format will be as follows:

[Step Number]: [describe the step]
Ex: “23: Boot kicks over a…”

I’ll leave it up to someone else to decide when we hit the end of this machine and note the final step which will trigger the final step. And when we finish this one, we figure out a new end step and go at it again! Repeats are allowed between machines.

Now, I’ve seen machines to sharpen a pencil, turn a light switch and various other mundane actions. Well, I’m sitting here on the couch and I am a bit warm, so I’d like to turn down the heater, but I’ll be damned if I want to get up off my lazy ass and turn it down myself. (Hint: This is the end step)

1: So I’ve got this bowling ball on a ramp and I decide to give it a nudge to put this machine in motion. The ball goes rolling down at the end of the ramp it pushes a…

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2: Pushes a kitchen stool five inches. A string tied to one of the stool’s legs pulls…

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the trigger of a revolver tied to a pole so that the bullet hits…

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I likee! The kids at my Science Olympiad team are designing an “automatic” toilet tissue paper holder.

4. a glass of water that is holding down one side of a balance and the other side raises to…
(Oh, and what kind of heating apparatus are we looking at?)

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5. lift a candle, which lights a wick…

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Wouldn’t this cause the other side of the balance to drop?

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  1. …which is a fuse that ignites a model rocket engine stapped to an old-style rollerskate, which scoots down a 2x4 to…
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close an electrical switch. The switch powers a fan, the breeze of which…

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…blows the smell of a roast in an oven out the window, attracting the attentions of a dog who follows the scent, causing his leash to pull on a …

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  1. piece of lumber propping up a dead tree branch. The dead tree branch falls, striking a beehive…
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**10. ** which is next to a mule that gets stung. The mule kicks…

Ahem. Yes. It would.

Umm, make that a lever and play around with the effort and load to make the candle raise.

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11…the cat lying asleep by its heels, whereupon the cat awakes with an annoyed screech, startling the mouse on the treadmill…

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  1. Which drives a dynamo that powers a taser prod, which shocks/sparks…
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13. Cecil Adams in the form of a turkey wearing a mortarboard, who is harnessed to the threaded post of a vertical press. As he runs from the shock, the post turns and the press squeezes…

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14. An electrode in a potato that lights a small light…

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  1. waking the hamster, who claws at the carboard bottom of his cage until he creates a hole and falls thru, landing on…
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Aww, I was hoping we could build one that might really be built :frowning:

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16…the water-filled balloon, which is punctured by the spike below and drips water onto…

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  1. A dried compressed sponge that upon hydration expands and activates a small micro pressure switch that …
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  1. Turns on the floodlights at Wembly [or major stadium of your choice]