Still no idea how they work
May 10, 2016 3:27 AM   Subscribe

If you only watch one Rube Goldberg machine today, make it this one: Magnets and Marbles!
posted by Joe in Australia (34 comments total) 65 users marked this as a favorite
 
So good!!
posted by ellieBOA at 3:43 AM on May 10, 2016


This was oddly hypnotizing.
posted by Thistledown at 3:47 AM on May 10, 2016 [2 favorites]


There was some really ingenious stuff going on. I found myself with a big, old smile on my face by the end.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 4:13 AM on May 10, 2016 [1 favorite]


That was.... beautiful. Excuse me while I go watch it again.
posted by easily confused at 4:37 AM on May 10, 2016 [1 favorite]


I love this so much. The magnets really add a new twist!
posted by kinnakeet at 4:48 AM on May 10, 2016


How delightful! I couldn't help but laugh at the end. I liked this because it was so low-tech, just slips of wood, a few springs, and many magnetic marbles. It must have been fun fine-tuning the array.
posted by Agave at 4:53 AM on May 10, 2016


Thanks I had no idea that this is what was missing in my morning today.
posted by humanfont at 5:14 AM on May 10, 2016


That was highly enjoyable!
posted by slogger at 5:51 AM on May 10, 2016


That was so much fun! It must have been even more fun to design.
posted by sldownard at 5:57 AM on May 10, 2016


I'm pretty sure the long sticks were dry pasta. That just makes it extra cool.
posted by nonspecialist at 6:06 AM on May 10, 2016 [1 favorite]


That was amazing! Thank you.
posted by teferi at 6:09 AM on May 10, 2016


a few springs

springs? I saw some slightly curled paper which worked like a weak spring, but no metal springs or anything like that...
posted by ennui.bz at 6:17 AM on May 10, 2016


That was so very very good. Just perfect. Thanks so much.
posted by OmieWise at 6:18 AM on May 10, 2016


The loopy multiple hit with the chain of bearings made me 'whoop'
posted by DigDoug at 6:24 AM on May 10, 2016 [2 favorites]


The use of PostIt flags (or were they bits of card, folded slightly?) as one-way gates was particularly clever. This was lovely.

I spent most of the video thinking how we could never do this in Canada, though.
posted by scruss at 6:32 AM on May 10, 2016


I really want to play with a giant table of this stuff. I bet actually setting it up is unbelievably frustrating though. "Just a little… tiny bi- *CLACK*… DAMMIT".
posted by lucidium at 6:46 AM on May 10, 2016


Beyond the novel use of magnetic spheres two of the best things about this set of shots are:

1. Everything is in a single frame so it doesn't subject the viewer to the poorly tracked shots that are often a hallmark of amateur rube goldberg devices.

2. Using an angled Ikea desk as a foundation instead of attaching mechanisms to a wall makes this very efficient to change up while also creating enough friction to slow movement down enough for the audience to keep track of the flow. This is like the rapid-prototyping of Rube Goldberg devices and I expect it will spawn a whole new host of goldberg machines.
posted by furtive at 6:54 AM on May 10, 2016 [10 favorites]


Wooooooow.
posted by rlk at 7:06 AM on May 10, 2016


that was so enjoyable! I got a real kick every time a spinning system set off another marble/metal ball.
posted by numaner at 7:17 AM on May 10, 2016


Oh wow. From the related videos check out these marble runs (delightfully known in German as a Kugelbahn) made out of Cuboro blocks.
posted by straight at 7:30 AM on May 10, 2016 [3 favorites]


those are marblelous! I loved this one
posted by numaner at 7:35 AM on May 10, 2016 [2 favorites]


I agree, no idea I needed this this morning, but I did! The prototyping must have been a pain in the nether regions though.
posted by nolabasashi at 7:36 AM on May 10, 2016


I just finished watching this (linked from elsewhere) and was checking to see if it had been posted here yet because ugghh so good. If this were a looping animated gif I'd never leave my desk again.

The creator, Kaplamino, has several other youtube videos, but I think this is their magnum opus.
posted by Metroid Baby at 8:43 AM on May 10, 2016


Is there a guidebook to Rube Goldberg machines? "1001 Brilliant Ideas for Your Rube Goldberg Machine," say, or "The Rube Goldberg Bible"? Do people who build them have a community? Conferences? Hang out on-line together? Do some of the common types of mechanisms have standard names used within this community? Or do they each get ideas from watching others, and thinking up things on their own, and tinkering around? I really want to know.
posted by not that girl at 8:49 AM on May 10, 2016 [3 favorites]


My favourite bit is where it winds up that whole line of small magnets into a sheath for the marble as it rolls across them.
posted by jacquilynne at 10:11 AM on May 10, 2016 [2 favorites]


Way cool. So this was all set up on a tilted tabletop? Hard to tell if it was done bit by bit or all at once.

(Semi-related, why has Chrome on my Mac just started refusing to play Youtube videos except in incognito mode?)
posted by gottabefunky at 10:40 AM on May 10, 2016


I watched a few more of this person's videos. I like what they do with loops and recursion—where things fall down one way in one direction, then the movement comes back and they fall again in the other way. Or where the same ball on a string starts the chain reaction in two directions. Really clever stuff.
posted by not that girl at 10:57 AM on May 10, 2016 [3 favorites]


Marbleous, magneficent! Like watching the metabolism of some incredible creature that eats gravitational potential energy.
posted by jamjam at 11:59 AM on May 10, 2016


That multi-hit interaction at 1:38 in the video is sublime. I'm in awe that they could come up with that, let alone make it work.
posted by NMcCoy at 12:58 PM on May 10, 2016 [1 favorite]


(Semi-related, why has Chrome on my Mac just started refusing to play Youtube videos except in incognito mode?)

Sounds like it could be an extensions issue, since those get turned off by default in incognito. Ad blocker perhaps?
posted by DLWM at 2:13 PM on May 10, 2016


Can anyone watch just this video and not watch 27 more Rube Goldberg videos?
posted by jeather at 5:28 PM on May 10, 2016


I love the way this is evocative of pinball.

This was oddly hypnotizing.

I was watching this on the bus and was halfway through before I realized the volume was still on.
posted by Room 641-A at 6:01 PM on May 10, 2016


It's not a Rube Goldberg machine.
posted by John Cohen at 7:33 PM on May 10, 2016 [1 favorite]


That was delightful! Thanks for posting it!
posted by Quietgal at 8:35 PM on May 10, 2016


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