By day, I am a corporate trainer. In the world of training, we try to say things as concisely and clearly as possible. We avoid stating any extra steps that could possibly confuse our classroom participants. The world of Rube Goldberg is quite the opposite. A Rube Goldberg machine, as stated on Wikipedia, is "an incredibly overengineered apparatus that performs a very simple task in very indirect and convoluted fashion."
Each year, there is a competition held to find the team that best masters the art of inefficiency. This year's task at the Rube Goldberg competition was to assemble a burger consisting of no less than one precooked meat patty, two vegetables and two condiments, sandwiched between bun halves. The rules required that this task needed to take 20 or more steps.
The winning team was from Purdue University and made their burgers in 156 steps! I hope no one was too hungry.
For more on the event, including some more photos, check out the article on Gizmodo.












Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
4-07-2008 @ 8:49PM
Christina said...
Now this is a burger I'd pay mega-bucks for, if I could watch the machines while I ate.
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