The celebrated Honda Accord commercial where all of the components in a very long Rube Goldberg machine are parts of the actual car.<p /><p />What makes this such a great RG machine is that it is so very finely toleranced, car tires appear to move uphill, impossibly, ball bearings are slowed to a precise speed by engine oil, and tiny car parts move large ones. A beautiful piece.
best Rube Goldberg Machine videos
Named after the famous cartoonist, Rube Goldberg machines are unlike ordinary gadgets in that they are deliberately inefficient, taking the maximum number of steps to achieve a goal. Last year’s winner of the Rube Goldberg competition took over three hundred steps to squeeze a glass of orange juice.
To truly appreciate RG machines you need to see them in action. Here is a list of videos of our favorites. Vote for yours.
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For the first few seconds, this machine seems pretty ordinary, a standard device made from household bit and pieces. But then it goes on an on, and crosses from room to room using almost the entire contents of a house. A great machine.
In 1987 Swiss artists Peter Fischli and David Weiss made a huge 100 feet long spectacular Rube Goldberg device. This was possibly the inspiration for the Honda commercial. <p /><p />What makes it really wonderful is that it uses all sorts of forces, fire, water chemical reactions rather than ball bearings under gravity, which are the staple of so many devices.
I wonder what Rube Golberg machines are called in Japan. In the UK, for example, they are named after a similar cartoonist, called Heath Robinson. <p /><p />Somehow I imagine the Japanese having a dedicated thousand year old adjective, since from this clip there is an extremely refined tradition of superlative RG machine making. Unfortunately the truly weird Hello Kitty music removes any gravitas.
Shown on a French TV chat show. Multiple pool tables are configured with dominos so that a single shot clears all the balls on each table.
Some nice uphill domino effects, here. <p /><p />However, the best thing about this machine is the fact that it is arranged almost two dimensionally in a vertical plane, ant farm style. This type of format films really well.
This outdoor machine, made by Jesse Ferguson at the Earth Center uses only natural elements such as sticks, stones and leaves, to hammer a large bell.<p /><p />My favorite moment is the spinning fern leaf which has just enough energy to topple the next component in the sequence, with the delicacy of a feather.
What Stoners can do when they put their minds to it. <p /><p />A Rube Goldberg device wends it way around various Star Wars action figures, to hit play on a VCR with Star Wars loaded.
A Sesame Street classic, where the entire alphabet is revealed as part of a linear cartoon in the style of Rube Goldberg.






