Rube Goldberg Sketch Preparing a pot of boiling water 09–10–2023
When coming up with the concept of a Rube Goldberg machine, I gravitated towards designing one that delt with the technicalities of cooking. In the original draft of my contraption, I had intended for the machine to fully cook a pot of rice. However, as I continued to think out my plan/design, I quickly realized that that there were many difficulties with implementing it-I had run into a lot of blanks and could not figure out how some steps would transfer into the next step. As I drafted for the initial concept, I tended to just draw/write everything down and ask questions later. So then I decided to simplify the task and instead create a machine that would prepare a bot of boiling water for when you put in your cup of rice. While still a challenge, I found it easier to arrive at a basic concept, even if flawed. For my final draft, I leaned into the more comical and nonsensical aspect of the Rube Goldberg machine. The heat and steam of the boiling pot of water would annoy the cartoon bird, causing the seesaw to move so that the measurement of salt would fall right into the pot. The butter, which is positioned over a surface above the pot, would melt, thus causing a small portion of the stick of butter to fall into the pot. By the end of this Rube Goldberg machine, the pot would have boiling water with salt and butter. In terms of what still needs to be done, I still need to figure out a way to incorporate a timer and stop the machine when the boiling water has all the essentials in the pot.