Who is Rube Goldberg?

• Rube Goldberg (1883-1970) was a Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist, sculptor and author

• He started out as an engineer but became a famous cartoonist drawing funny inventions

Funny inventions??? Just think…Have you ever seen the game Mouse Trap?

The game Mouse Trap is an example of a funny invention that has different pieces put together to work like a machine.

• Rube Goldberg’s cartoons were like this game because they were “inventions” or “contraptions” in which he used an elaborate set of arms, wheels, gears, handles, cups and rods, put in motion by balls, canary cages, pails, boots, bathtubs, paddles and live animals –

and takes a simple task and makes it extraordinarily complicated.

He used different types of machines to make his cartoons!

• We are going to look at six different kinds of simple machines: inclined plane, wheel & axel, wedge, pulley, screw, lever

Inclined Plane

Wheel & Axel

Wedge

Pulley

Screws

Lever

Rube did not build the machines he drew, but his cartoons have

become an inspiration to aspiring engineers and scientists

across the world.

Watch this video to see one such example!

http://thomaselementaryart.blogspot.com/search/label/3rd%20Grade

• You are going to design a machine using

at least four of the simple machines to replace your brain. The machine is supposed to do something that happens in your head (blinking, yawning, remembering, etc.)