In short, this new Melvin is a Rube Goldberg machine specifically built to travel the world, and let‘s be honest, we like the idea of going with him whenever and wherever we can.
Category Archives: Video
"Buckeyball" Motor
These “Buckeyball” magnets look like fun (but IMO a tad pricey for a good-sized collection). The towers are just for structural integrity; it’s the ones on the battery itself that are responsible for the motor action.
Flipping Out
Flying object propels itself by flipping inside out
The design is based on the inverted cube shape discovered by inventor and mathematician Paul Schatz. By dissecting a cube into three parts, two star-shaped units can be produced at either end with an invertible belt in the middle section which is the same shape as the flying band. The system reproduces the entire structure: it opens to release the band while the ends remain on the ground as a docking station.
The video seems odd, though — it looks like they speed it up in spots, making it more difficult to tell what’s actually going on.
Monkey Launching Capability
First place I saw this didn’t mention what the combustion reaction was, but via kottke:
If you mix calcium carbide and water, it produces acetylene. Acetylene is extremely flammable and can launch 55-gallon drums into the air when ignited.
Stupidity Captured at 2500 fps
The post title is the subtitle of the video, with the obvious disclaimer of don’t try this at home (or work). The flour catching fire and waterbed defect propagation are particularly cool, and there’s something surreal about a chunk of watermelon flying directly at the camera in slo-mo.
(A little peeve of mine — I know that a camera capable of this level of speed and quality is not something that my allowance will permit me to buy, but I really hate websites that tell you request a quote rather than just giving the list price of the item. I ran into this a bit when I did purchasing as a collateral duty, and it just meant I was going to try and buy from someone else. Anyone, as long as I could place the order and be done with it.)
The Porcupine Handshake Effect
Anyone else nervous that they quote “miles per hour”, worried perhaps there’s a metric conversion they missed? I kid, JPL, I kid. I kid because I love.
Along those lines, nobody I talked to at JPL (way back when) thought this was funny
To Understand the Helicopter, You Must Understand the Gyroscope
So That's Where it Came From
Rube-y Goldberg Tuesday, World Record Edition, 2012
The Purdue Society of Professional Engineers team smashed its own world record for largest Rube Goldberg machine with a 300-step behemoth that flawlessly accomplished the simple task of blowing up and popping a balloon – setting the new world record for the Largest functional Rube Goldberg machine
They beat the record they set last year