Mixed shouts of elation and relief broke the anticipating silence that filled the room, as juniors Ellen Weaver, Iris Kang and Peggy Hwang jumped up and down with delight. Their Rube Goldberg machine had succesfully made a cup of hot chocolate.

"It only works 20 percent of the time," Weaver said. "But this time it actually poured out all the water!"

This machine is just one of the many built by Paly students in Physics 1 for the Rube Goldberg Project. The project involves creating a machine to perform a simple task using ten steps, four types of energy and three types of machines. The assignment is inspired by Rube Goldberg, who was notorious for his comics depicting complicated machines that preformed simple tasks.

Besides making hot chocolate, other groups decided to create machines that fed a fish, opened a can, knocked a ball into a basketball hoop, turned on a light bulb, played wind chimes and many more interesting tasks.

As the students get only three chances to make their project work and be evaluated by their teacher, the suspense is great.

"It’s scary because it [the machine] might not work," junior Sereena Ojakian said.

Ojakian’s machine consisted of precariously connected cardboard and cups that led a ball through a series of obstacles and in the end poured milk into a cereal bowl.

The students got three weeks to work on the project.

"Other people say it took them a really long time," Junior Kaela Fox said. "It took us only three hours."

Fox worked with Tito Balsamo, using "Marble Maze" to create a machine that hit the "play" button on a CD player.

"It was a lot of work," junior Morgan Davies said. "But when it was done it was really cool seeing the final product."