Rube Goldberg Day in the Park: World’s Largest Rube Goldberg Machine

Rube Goldberg conventions already exist – lots of them. Existing conventions involve having participants bring their respective contraptions to operate individually.

The key to this idea is a set of predefined input/output parameters allowing the participants to show up and link their creative Rube Goldberg contraptions together. The goal is to build the World's Largest Rube Goldberg Machine.

The great event is widely publicized, inviting all tinkerers and inventors to bring their Rube Goldberg contraptions. The participating tinkerers have all pre-registered, each signing up to have their machine conform to a set of predefined input/output parameters which will link their weird machine with the contraption ahead and behind it in the formation. Example input/output parameters include: an input of a ball bearing rolling down a small trough at a certain height/speed, resulting in an output of a fan blowing a specific amount of air in a certain direction.

Early morning on the big day, the tinkerers and inventors show up and begin to assemble their respective Rube Goldberg machines. Inspectors test and retest each inventor's section of the giant Rube Goldberg machine, verifying the reliability and compatibility with the next section. Hasty repairs and last minute adjustments are made.

The sun, reaching a particular position at noon, shines through a magnifying glass, lighting a candle, which burns a string, dropping a billiard ball onto a hinged spoon, which flips a ball bearing into the air, landing in a tin funnel, ...

three hours later the last section of the giant Rube Goldberg machine comes to life

...rolling a marble down a winding trough, dropping on to a thin rubber membrane stretched over a coffee can, bouncing into a domino, knocking down a row of succeedingly larger wooden blocks, nudging a roller skate carrying a plate down a ramp, the roller skate hits a block of aluminum connected to a switch, stopping it abruptly and tossing a glob of twisted dough off the plate into a toaster oven.

Four minutes later, a steaming hot croissant pops out! Viola!