Not-fast food

Building better burger at Rube Goldberg contest

Excerpt:

This year's task was to assemble a burger consisting of no less than one precooked meat patty, two vegetables and two condiments, sandwiched between bun halves.

The victory by the 17-member Purdue Society of Professional Engineers was the team's third such win in the past four years in the contest, named for the late cartoonist known for his drawings of complicated devices performing simple tasks.

Texas A&M University placed second; the University at Buffalo in New York was third.

After winning the regional contest in February, Purdue's team added 55 steps to perfect its machine, captain Drew Wischer said.

"We put 4,000 to 5,000 man-hours into this machine since September, and all the hard work has been well worth it," said Wischer, a senior in aviation technology from Cedarburg, Wis.

Comment: Interesting