Winners of the annual Rube Goldberg Machine Contests
contest, went to Maine South.
Other teams in the contest were:
- Antioch Community High School
- Alan B. Shepard High School
- Glenbrook North High School
- Hoffman Estates High School
- Joliet Central High School
- Latino Youth High School
- Walter Payton College Prep High School
- Wilmington High School
In addition to advancing to the national championship, the winning team received a traveling trophy to display until the 2010 contest and a tour of Argonne, which will include the Advanced Photon Source and lunch with Argonne scientists. The first-place team also will have the opportunity to demonstrate its winning machine at Argonne on the day of its tour. In addition, each team member and the team’s faculty advisor received an Argonne National Laboratory Rube Goldberg Machine laptop backpack and an Argonne Rube Goldberg Machine Contest T-shirt.
Second-place team members and their faculty advisor received Argonne National Laboratory Rube Goldberg Machine laptop backpacks and Argonne Rube Goldberg Machine Contest T-shirts.
Third-place team members and their faculty advisor received Argonne National Laboratory Rube Goldberg Machine Contest T-shirts.
The University of Texas ASME entry
A good example for the entries in the national competition is the one built by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) at the University of Texas, Austin. The machine was Wild West-themed, and it completed the task dispensing an appropriate amount of hand sanitizer in 46 steps in one minute and 45 seconds on the first run, and one minute and 30 seconds on the second.
Step List
ASME’s machine completed the task in 46 steps, which were as follows:
- Gun emits IR light
- Arduino board reads IR signal
- Microcontroller trips relay
- Relay turns on vibrating cow table
- Table vibrates causing stampede
- Cows stampede down ramp
- Stampede springs mouse trap
- Mouse trap pulls support from water tower
- Water tower falls over hitting switch
- Switch turns on the pump
- Water flows down chute
- Water falls into lake causing the water level to rise
- Water raises ping pong balls
- Ping pong balls lift the gate holding logging cart
- Logging cart rolls down and hits ramp support
- Marble rolls down shaft into maze
- Marble rolls through the maze
- Marble falls into elevator
- Elevator drops activating the crane
- Crane lifts the logs causing train to start
- Train goes around track to station hitting a gate
- Gate hits a marble
- Marble falls down tube flipping a switch
- Switch turns on the pump for the oil derrick
- Oil chute fills raising ping pong through maze
- Ping pong ball hits lever with force of rising water causing it to rise
- Lever tilts ramp causing another marble to fall
- Marble travels down ramps and tube to hit mouse trap
- Mouse trap pulls supports from gallows
- Hanging convicts fall to their death pulling down nooses
- Nooses pull out brakes from stagecoach
- Stagecoach goes down ramp knocking down support of arrow
- Arrow hits Indian
- Other end of arrow pulls wire
- Wire pulls support from underneath hot air balloon
- Hot air balloon falls pulling on rope
- Rope travels through pulleys unraveling the wagon wheel
- Rope pulls support out from under bird
- Bird flies knocking down cactus
- Cacti go down as dominoes
- Last cactus hits a switch turning on solenoid
- Solenoid turns on air stream from compressor
- Air turns the windmill
- Windmill turns Archimedes screw
- Rotational motion forces hand sanitizer up
- Hand sanitizer dispenses into hand
