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Inventor: MIT Particle Physics Research Team
Price: 7,800,000 US
Lease Period: 3 weeks
A Rube Goldberg machine is an incredibly over engineered apparatus that performs a very simple task in very indirect and convoluted fashion (thus absurdly violating the principle of parsimony). The term first appeared in Webster's Third New International Dictionary with the definition, "accomplishing by extremely complex roundabout means what actually or seemingly could be done simply." The expression has been dated as originating in the United States around 1930 to describe Rube Goldberg's illustrations of "absurdly-connected machines". Since then, the expression's meaning has expanded to denote any form of overly confusing or complicated system. For example, recent news headlines include "Is Rep. Bill Thomas the Rube Goldberg of Legislative Reform?", and "Retirement 'insurance' as a Rube Goldberg machine". It has been argued that fissioning uranium to boil water under tremendous temperature and pressure renders nuclear power a Rube Goldberg machine.
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| Rube Goldberg Dimensional Displacer | $7,800,000.00 |
