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Purdue Claims World Record Goldberg Machine

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Purdue Claims World Record Goldberg Machine

Steve Rousseau writes for Popular Mechanics:

It starts with the Big Bang, re-creates the extinction of the dinosaurs, holds a jousting competition, flips over an album, and simulates World War II, a shuttle launch, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and even the alleged apocalypse in 2012. In its precisely executed review of history, “The Time Machine,” a Rube Goldberg contraption built by members of the Purdue Society of Professional Engineers and Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers, incorporates a record-breaking 244 steps—all to water a single flower

Reportedly, the previous world-record holder, Katsumi Takahashi and co-workers at Ferris State University, had 230 steps. [via Boing Boing]

More:
Top 10: Rube Goldberg Machines

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I am descended from 5,000 generations of tool-using primates. Also, I went to college and stuff. I am a long-time contributor to MAKE magazine and makezine.com. My work has also appeared in ReadyMade, c't – Magazin für Computertechnik, and The Wall Street Journal.

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