Rube Goldberg task: pump out some hand sanitizer

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — The complicated task that competitors in this year’s Rube Goldberg contest will have to perform is something that’s become very familiar to Americans in the past year — pumping out hand sanitizer.

The machines built by the six teams competing in the local Rube Goldberg Machine Contest at Purdue University on Feb. 20 will have to take at least 20 steps to pump the right amount of sanitizer into a hand to ward off illness such as the swine flu.

The winning machine will be the one that completes that task in the greatest number of steps. That team will compete in the March 27 national Rube Goldberg contest, also at Purdue.

The competition is named for the late cartoonist Rube Goldberg, known for his drawings of whimsical, complicated devices performing simple tasks.