A Lesson Courtesy of The Mythbusters

Last night while watching TV I happened upon the Christmas episode of “The Mythbusters” program on Discovery Channel. Its one of my favorite shows on TV. I watch it whenever I remember that it’s on. The project the two main hosts (Adam and Jamie) decided to work on was not testing a myth like they usually do, but rather building a Rube Goldberg device. I had no idea what they were talking about until they started planning and building it.

According to Wikepedia a Rube Goldberg device is a complex machine that performs simple tasks in indirect, convoluted ways. After a little research I found out that Rube Goldberg was a cartoonist famous for including drawings of complex machines that do simple tasks in one of his comic strips. The “inventor” of these contraptions was a character named Professor Lucifer Gorgonzola Butts.

I have always been fascinated by Rube Goldberg devices whenever I’ve seen them. I can remember putting them together while playing the games “Crazy Clock” and “Mousetrap” as a kid. I spent almost an entire afternoon watching one that was on exhibit when I visited the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia. I also remember seeing them in the movies “Back to the Future” and “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.” A very simple version of one is setting up dominos to fall. However over the years people have even turned that into some rather detailed projects.

The Mythbusters had a bit of difficulty getting their rather complex device to work but during the closing credits of the show it finally completed its task through to completion. You can see it and a lot more Rube Goldberg devices if you log onto YouTube and do a search. If you’ve got the time I’d encourage it. There’s some very entertaining videos to be seen.

I’m really pleased about learning that one of my favorite types of inventions has an official name. Just goes to show you that you never know when or where you’re going to find an opportunity to learn. Surprisingly this time I learned from watching TV. In this day and age that’s something to post about.