Rube Goldberg Machine Sets World Record

We’ve seen all kinds of crazy Rube Goldberg machines, but this one is breaking records (and bursting balloons.) In fact Purdue University’s Society of Professional Engineers and the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers broke their own world record this past Saturday with a machine that has 300 steps. The previous record was 244 steps.

rube goldberg machine

Not content with breaking their own record, this machine is also pretty compact. They were able to get it so compact by creating rotating contraptions that fold out only when needed. Yes, this is a lot of work just to blow up and pop a balloon, but that’s the whole point of a Rube Goldberg machine.

It took the team over 5,000 hours to build the machine, and in the end it did things like peeling an apple, juicing an orange, toasting bread, making a hamburger, changing a light bulb, loading a CD and sharpening a pencil before it reached its balloon-popping goal. Check out the video above to watch it all happen.

[via The Awesomer]