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26 Making Things Move
P roject 1-1: Rube Goldberg Breakfast Machine
Rube Goldberg was an engineer turned cartoonist who is best known for his cartoon
series depicting complex contraptions that perform simple tasks in extraordinarily
complex ways. In fact, the adjective Rube Goldbergian is defined as “accomplishing by
complex means what seemingly could be done simply.” 5
Omega Engineering (www.omega.com), a company that specializes in automation
equipment, uses Rube Goldberg cartoons in its ads as a comical way to show that its
products are more efficient at automating tasks than the Rube Goldbergian way.
These cartoons epitomize the idea that there is always more than one way to
accomplish a task (see Figure 1-27). This is certainly true when it comes to making
mechanisms, and it’s important to realize that the first solution to a problem that
comes to mind may not be the simplest or the best.
FIGURE 1-27 Rube Goldberg machine
