[SES1066]

Should we be suprised that America is not producing enough Science/Math oriented kids and their inability to payback their guaranteed student loans???

I disagree - this is physics and engineering in practice, a real world test of kinetic and potential energy states, friction and parabolas. While the spectators might have been there for the fun, the builders and designers were demonstrating real skills, easily converted to real jobs with a future.

There is an annual nationwide Rube Goldberg college-level contest hosted by Purdue University. Their definition of a Rube Goldberg machine is a process of 20 steps (or more) to accomplish a simple task. 2012 task was to inflate a balloon, 2013 will be to hammer a nail. Of course these examples have to be 'portable' and small enough to be cheek-by-jowl with their competitors.

This Coke example is far too large to be used there as is another corporate classic that I have loved for years, Honda UK Accord commercial.

[Netz]

OK, good points. Skills & experience in real-world application. All I am saying is that the vast majority of those spectators (those who did not design and plan) were simply wowed by the drinks at the end. Kudos to the real students who built it but I still question who stands behind such a project?