What's the deal with Rube Goldberg?
Most inventions try to make difficult tasks easier. Rube Goldberg discovered ways to make simple tasks amazingly difficult. One of his inventions used dozens of arms, wheels, gears, handles, cups, and rods that were moved by balls, canary cages, pails, boots, bathtubs, paddles, and animals, just to squeeze oranges for orange juice. The funny thing about his inventions is that he never built them; he only designed them.
Try your hand at building your own real-world Rube Goldberg invention. Here's a bunch of ZOOMsci activities that will help you get started.
Start thinking like Rube Goldberg:
Get ideas for contraptions you can use in your Rube Goldberg invention:
