It’s a strange if elegant contraption that looks like what would result if you had Rube Goldberg take a crack at the tried-and-true bicycle design. How does it work exactly?

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The video posted by the popular Auto Technology account is quite short, but it features a rather polished end product of a student project of some sort. We know this because the bike has been laminated with a sticker that reads, “Senior Project 2021” on its base. So, how does it work? These kids are clearly experts in the science and technology of locomotion, generating a similar amount of friction and force from several coils in the rope through a pulley-like system throughout. We’ve counted eight different pulleys along which the rope is pulled to generate the friction necessary to push the rear wheel. What’s the point? Again, we have no idea — we’ll just say for the sake of science.