St. Olaf students win Rube Goldberg competition
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How many St. Olaf College students does it take to change a light bulb? Apparently the answer is 11 -- and it takes them 239 steps and nearly two full minutes to get the job done.
And that's just right when you're competing in the national Rube Goldberg Machine Contest, which took place over the weekend at Purdue University. Teams from around the country designed absurdly-complex contraptions to accomplish the simple task of replacing an incandescent light bulb with a more energy-efficient alternative.
St. Olaf was the only liberal arts college at the contest and the only school without an engineering department. So that made their 1st place finish all the more stunning.
Senior Dan Endean is a captain member of the winning team, he joined Tom Crann from Northfield, along with the project's advisor, physics professor Jason Engbrecht.
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