HOW MANY STEPS DOES IT TAKE TO SQUEEZE JUICE FROM AN ORANGE? HOFSTRA TEAM SAYS 45!
The competition celebrates the complex and wacky creations of Pulitzer Prize-winning artist and engineer Rube Goldberg, (1883-1970), whose "invention" cartoons created incredibly complex machines to perform simple tasks. The machines, which used everyday household items, were Goldberg's way of satirizing the machines that were being built at the time and illustrated his belief that people actually preferred doing things the hard way rather than taking a simple and direct approach to solving a problem.
(Media-Newswire.com) - Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY - A team of Hofstra engineering students has created a machine that requires 45 steps and incorporates mouse traps, dominoes and marbles to squeeze the juice from an orange as their entry in the national Rube Goldberg Machine Contest.
The competition celebrates the complex and wacky creations of Pulitzer Prize-winning artist and engineer Rube Goldberg, ( 1883-1970 ), whose "invention" cartoons created incredibly complex machines to perform simple tasks. The machines, which used everyday household items, were Goldberg's way of satirizing the machines that were being built at the time and illustrated his belief that people actually preferred doing things the hard way rather than taking a simple and direct approach to solving a problem.
A team of Hofstra engineering students from Theta Tau, a co-ed professional engineering fraternity whose entries won the national contest in 1993 and 1994, will travel Friday to Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana for the annual competition. Participants are required to design a machine that makes the solution to a simple task as complicated and as convoluted as possible, with a minimum of 20 steps. This year's task is to create a machine than can make juice from a whole orange and pour the juice from a pitcher into a cup.
The contest was originated in 1949 at the height of Goldberg's popularity by two engineering fraternities at Purdue, and was held until 1955. It was revived in 1983.
Students will assemble and test their unique Rube Goldberg orange juicer on Thursday before packing it up for the trip to Purdue. To see a demonstration of the machine, contact Stu Vincent at 516-463-6493 or 516-448-4913 ( cell ).
Hofstra University is a dynamic private institution where students find their edge to succeed in more than 140 undergraduate and 155 graduate programs in liberal arts and sciences, business, communication, education and allied human services, and honors studies, as well as a School of Law. With a student-faculty ratio of 14-to-1, our professors teach small classes averaging 23 students that emphasize interaction, critical thinking and analysis. Hofstra offers a faculty whose highest priority is teaching excellence, cutting edge technology, extensive library resources, internships and special educational programs that appeal to their interests and abilities.
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Media Contact: Stuart Vincent - Assistant Vice President University Relations 0101B Hofstra Hall Phone: ( 516 ) 463-6493 Fax: ( 516 ) 463-5146 E-Mail: Stuart.Vincent@hofstra.edu URL: http://www.hofstra.edu/News/UR/index_UR.cfm
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