Rube Goldberg contest shines light on engineering, fun, learning

ARGONNE, Ill. (Jan. 24, 2005) — It may be better to light a candle than curse the darkness, but at Argonne National Laboratory's 10th annual Rube Goldberg Machine Contest, students will find shining a light somewhat of a challenge.

This year's contest challenges student teams to build a complicated machine that takes at least 20 steps to remove both old batteries from a two-battery flashlight, install new batteries and turn the flashlight on. The machines will be put to the test in Argonne's Rube Goldberg Machine Contest, Friday, Feb. 18, at Chicago Children's Museum at Navy Pier. The contest will begin at 10:30 a.m. with the judges reviewing machines. The first machine will run about 11 a.m.

Nine teams have registered to participate this year:

The winning team will receive a traveling trophy to display until the 2006 contest and a tour of Argonne, which will include the Advanced Photon Source, and lunch with Argonne scientists. In addition, each team member and the team's faculty advisor will receive an Argonne National Laboratory Rube Goldberg Machine wrist watch and an Argonne Rube Goldberg Machine Contest T-shirt. The first-place team also will have the opportunity to demonstrate its winning machine at Argonne National Laboratory on the day of its tour.

Second-place team members and their faculty advisor will receive Argonne National Laboratory Rube Goldberg Machine wrist watches and Argonne Rube Goldberg Machine Contest T-shirts.

Third-place team members and their faculty advisor will receive Argonne National Laboratory Rube Goldberg Machine Contest T-shirts.

A trophy will be awarded to the team that wins the People's Choice Award, to be chosen by popular vote by people attending the Chicago Children's Museum during the contest.

The top three teams in Argonne's contest advance to the 2005 Illinois State Championship to be held Saturday, April 9, at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. They will compete against the top three teams from an affiliated contest to be held Friday, March 11, at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

The top two teams in the Illinois State Championship will advance to the second annual National High School Championship contest to be held April 29, at the Wisconsin Exhibition Center, State Fair Park, Wisc. For more information see the national contest Website at http://www.uwm.edu/CEAS//rube/. Argonne will work with teams in its contest to help meet deadlines for the national contest.

Rube Goldberg machine contests are inspired by Reuben Lucius Goldberg, whose cartoons combined simple household items into complex devices to perform trivial tasks. The machines combine the principles of physics and engineering, using common objects such as marbles, mousetraps, stuffed animals, electric mixers, vacuum cleaners, rubber tubes, bicycle parts and anything else that happens to be on hand.

Information about the Argonne Rube Goldberg Machine Contest for High Schools is available on the World Wide Web at www.anl.gov/Careers/Education/rube/index.html.

Argonne's Division of Educational Programs and Communications and Public Affairs Division sponsor the February event in collaboration with Chicago Children's Museum, and with the National Rube Goldberg Machine Contest, held annually at Purdue University. The event is licensed by Rube Goldberg, Inc.

"Rube Goldberg" is a registered trademark of Rube Goldberg, Inc., which can be reached by fax at (212) 371-3761, by e-mail at license@rubegoldberg.com or information@rubegoldberg.com, or on the World Wide Web at www.rgmc.com.

Chicago Children's Museum's mission is to create a community where play and learning connect. For more information about Chicago Children's Museum, call (312) 527-1000 or visit www.chichildrensmuseum.org.

Argonne National Laboratory brings the world's brightest scientists and engineers together to find exciting and creative new solutions to pressing national problems in science and technology. The nation's first national laboratory, Argonne conducts leading-edge basic and applied scientific research in virtually every scientific discipline. Argonne researchers work closely with researchers from hundreds of companies, universities, and federal, state and municipal agencies to help them solve their specific problems, advance America 's scientific leadership and prepare the nation for a better future. With employees from more than 60 nations, Argonne is managed by UChicago Argonne, LLC for the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science.

For more information, please contact Steve McGregor (630/252-5580 or media@anl.gov) at Argonne.