Mark Arminio
The Late Movies: Rube Goldberg Rocks
by Mark Arminio - March 11, 2010 - 10:00 PM

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A Rube Goldberg machine performs a simple task in a complex fashion and there have been some amazing ones (we wrote about the life of Rube Goldberg last year). Tonight for the Late Movies, we take a look at a few of these amazing machines.

The group OK GO, which caused quite an internet stir with their video for “Here It Goes Again” (complete with a choreographed treadmill dance), are back with a new album as well as a video for their first single, “This Too Shall Pass.” It took them two months to build this Rube Goldberg machine and the result is well worth it.

Cream That Egg! Here is a Rube Goldberg machine with one singular purpose. Smashing a cream filled egg. Brilliant.

Many of you have seen this one from Honda (named “Cog”), filmed with actual parts from an Accord. When the firm responsible for the ad presented this to the team at Honda, the execs weren’t initially impressed, believing the whole thing was computer generated. Not so…it took them 606 takes to get this right.

Here is a very complex homemade version using just about every object you’d find in your house. Major bonus points for the chess sequence in the middle.

Bored at work? Read mental_floss. Once you’re finished, spend the night with a friend and make a Rube Goldberg out of common office supplies.

And what list of complex mechanics would be complete without the Mythbusters getting involved?

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Comments (6)
  1. I am both disappointed and proud to announce that I have seen all of these, almost all more than once. Of course, that’s no reason to avoid watching them all again…*loses motivation to be a productive member of society*

  2. These are all wonderful! Thank you very much for posting them Mark. I loved watching these videos :)

  3. This is really cool as I am making a 3d animation of a Rube Goldberg machine for a project at college. Awesome =)

  4. No Pee-Wee’s breakfast contraption?

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYyD55elKJA

  5. I work for State Farm and we got to watch This Too Shall Pass video right after it was complete. Absolutely AWESOME!

  6. the Myth Busters were great- they’re so involved!

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