Purdue Team's Invention A Joy To Watch

We're taking a short respite from the usual sports updates to deliver this gem of a YouTube video from Purdue. Here's the gist of it: Purdue students built a machine that involves 300 steps to blow up and pop a balloon. Watch it in this post and read more about the contest, too.

Posted on Purdue's YouTube page a few days ago, the video shows off the 300 steps it takes to inflate and then pop a balloon.  According to the video description, the Purdue Society of Professional Engineers team smashed its own Guinness world record for largest Rube Goldberg machine.  The team spent more than 5,000 hours building the machine. The tasks involved include peeling an apple, juicing an orange, toasting bread, making a hamburger, changing a light bulb, loading a CD and sharpening a pencil.

There's another video shot from a different angle over here.

Last year the same team created a machine that had 244 steps, winning it a spot in the "Guinness Book of World Records." Immediately after the competition Saturday, the machine completed a perfect run, qualifying it for another world record, according to Purdue.

The machine took second place in the  25th annual Rube Goldberg Machine Contest but also took home the People's Choice Award, as voted by the audience. If we had a vote, they would have received it too. Read more about that contest here and see a bunch of other related YouTube videos over here.