For LEGODAN:
http://www.insidebayarea.com/localnews/ci_2701246
Build with Legos, be a part of history
World's biggest Rube Goldberg machine to be constructed at Alameda County fair
By Matt Carter, STAFF WRITER
Inside Bay Area
PLEASANTON — Among the prize-winning pigs and flower arrangements at this summer's Alameda County Fair, a few exhibitors will be shooting for a world record.
The fair and a Fremont-based non-profit are sponsoring a contest to build the world's most complicated Rube Goldberg machine out of Lego building blocks.
Named after the cartoonist Reuben Goldberg, such contraptions are designed to do something simple — like swatting a fly — in a needlessly elaborate fashion.
For the contest at this summer's fair, the machines can use gears, pulleys, motors, rubber bands and strings to accept a rolling ball and raise a flag for five seconds before ejecting the ball.
The trick will be to design the machines so that they can be connected with others to form the largest Rube Goldberg machine ever built.
Building a "cascadeable" machine — one that can be connected to others — is actually simpler than it sounds, said Jill Wilker, president of Playing at Learning, the non-profit organization that's helping organize the event.
cept a rolling ball and raise a flag for five seconds before ejecting the ball.
The trick will be to design the machines so that they can be connected with others to form the largest Rube Goldberg machine ever built.
Building a “cascadeable” machine — one that can be connected to others — is actually simpler than it sounds, said Jill Wilker, president of Playing at Learning, the nonprofit organization that’s helping organize the event.
“Lego has a baseplate they are very strict about (it’s dimensions),” Wilker said. “We’ve defined three entry points on one side of the baseplate, and nine exit points” for the ball on the remaining sides.
Wilker said organizers may have to build some “transition” machines to carry the ball from one contraption to another. But she said other Lego groups already have developed the techniques needed to interconnect many independently built components to form giant train layouts or “Mars scapes.”
Anyone can enter the contest in four age divisions, and machines that meet the require ments to interconnect with others will be invited to participate in the record breaking attempt on Sunday, July 3.
A Rube Goldberg machine is judged by the number of steps it takes to accomplish its goal.
Students at Manache High School in Porterville hold the record for building a 113step machine out of everyday materials. Now that Wilker has a goahead from the Guinness World Record organization to enter a “community machine” as a challenger, she expects the record will fall. But that could also mean that other groups will be quick to mount similar attempts.
“We’re thinking that by doing this, it will create more general interest in Rube Goldberg machines,” Wilker said. “We may have to reset (the record) next year because it may have been broken in between.”
The Rube Goldberg Machine Contest will take place in the Technology Adventures Building at the 2005 Alameda County Fair.
There is no cost to participate, but entries must be registered by May 14, with judging taking place June 1819. For more information, visit
http://www.AlamedaCountyFair. com or call (925) 426 7611.
interesting none the less :)