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back to article Geeks break time machine record

A cabal of engineers from the Purdue Society of Professional Engineers and Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers has broken the world record for a Rube Goldberg contraption, executing a review of history from the Big Bang to the Mayan 2012 apocalypse in 244 steps — to water a single flower. The Rube Goldberg competition …

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  1. Daniel Evans

    How do you judge it?

    Surely there's a hint of just being able to describe simple things in as many actions as possible? You could describe that entire machine as 2 actions ("Describes history briefly, waters plant"), or as a few billion ("electron A interacts with electron B in a water droplet a few cm above the plant"...).

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  2. Michael Chester
    Boffin

    How to beat the record

    1.Take each of the competitors

    2. add something to the end of each to trigger the start of the next

    3. done

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  3. Mark York 3 Silver badge
    Joke

    Playmobile

    I thought the video for Invincible by Muse did it far better, especially as it used Playmobile figures.

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  4. Bill Fresher

    Repetition

    Heath Robinson (Brit) did this first and better, but Rube Goldberg (Yank) gets the fame.

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