With Build Your Own Chain Reaction Machines, you'll create twelve zany and awesome mechanical contraptions using stuff from around the house. Build Your Own Chain Reaction Machines is inspired by the amazing artwork of renowned cartoonist, engineer, and inventor Rube Goldberg, whose wacky, imagined machines accomplished tasks by taking the most complicated route possible. This book invites kids to this wonderful world of creating crazy contraptions. In this entertaining and instructive book, mechanical engineer and educator Paul Long gives step-by-step instructions for making low-tech devices using everyday objects in inspired and ingenious ways. Create machines that fold your shirts, dispense candy, make music, and more. Each of the twelve projects demonstrates how to build the machines various elements, and explains how they work together to make a mind-boggling mechanism that delivers hours of fun and fascination. Also included are interesting sidebars on the science behind each gadget, plus tips and tricks for success. Build Your Own Chain Reaction Machines gives you the know-how to start your own, fantastic chain reactions.