39.0°,
Fair Umbrella opening made complicated
Wantagh High School students took the process of opening up an umbrella one step further. Actually, about 20 steps further.
Four teams from the school participated in the annual Rube Goldberg competition at the Cradle of Aviation Museum last Saturday, showcasing the elaborate machines they had been working on for months. Each team had to open an umbrella using a process of at least 20 steps. Using rolling balls, levers and pulleys, falling dominoes and more, these machines made a simple task quite complicated, just the way cartoonist and inventor Rube Goldberg would have wanted it.
Nine machines were entered into the competition from five high schools, with Wantagh having nearly half of the entries. A panel of judges visited each one, and every team got three tries to run their machines with final scores based on both effectiveness and creativity. “The more humor you bring to it, the more points you get,” Wantagh adviser Renee MacDermott said.
Wantagh’s Tirassic Playground team finished third overall. The Jurassic Park-themed machine started with a golf ball rolling into a cup to a crane, and ended with a weight that dropped down to open the umbrella. Led by senior Matt Palazzolo, the process took 22 steps.
To add to the creativity, Palazzolo and his teammates even dressed like they worked at Jurassic Park with tan hats, boots and, despite the cold weather, khaki cargo shorts. Steven Sedig did the dinosaur artwork on the walls.
Palazzolo said he likes the creativity and ingenuity that the Rube Goldberg competition allows. He said the biggest challenge was getting the machine to work perfectly every time, but felt good going into it.
Another Wantagh team was Super Rube, with a super heroes theme. Led by Michael Hennig and Ben Schablin, the machine contained 22 steps that started with a ball rolling down a track and ended with a car hitting a cup, dropping marbles into the umbrella.
The Ruberstitions team was led by Brian Tretter and Grace Sullivan. The superstitions-based machine started its 22-step process with a car rolling down a ramp and finished with a hammer hitting a dowel to open the umbrella.
