Student Group Makes the Simple Complicated

COLUMBIA, Ky. -- A group of Lindsey Wilson College students successfully complicated a simple process on Friday afternoon. The college's Rube Goldberg Machine Group held its inaugural demonstration in the Jim & Helen Lee Fugitte Science Center. The eight-member student group demonstrated the roundabout way to swipe an LWC student ID card. Rather than taking a few moments to scan a card, the students created a contraption that took about 45 seconds. They demonstrated their invention twice, and only needed one human intervention each time it was executed.

Rube Goldberg was a 20th-century American cartoonist whose drawings depicted complex devices that performed simple tasks in indirect, convoluted ways. LWC's Rube Goldberg Machine Group plans to hold at least one more demonstration this school year.

Members of the LWC Rube Goldberg Machine Group are: Marybeth Campbell of Corinth, Ky.; Seirra Coe of Greensburg, Ky.; Korianne Cox of Columbia; Johnny Keith of Columbia; Bryce McDaniel of Campbellsville, Ky.; Hezekeiah Weiss of McKee, Ky.; Thomas Williams of Russell Springs, Ky.; and Chris Wright of Campbellsville, Ky. The group's adviser is Assistant Professor of Physics Mark L. McKinnon.

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Click here to see pictures from the inaugural demonstration.