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Wonder how far it can throw a pumpkin?

http://www.punkinchunkin.com/

This is no trebuchet... http://www.punkinchunkin.com/images/galleries/2008/Alex/pages/IMG_3865_jpg.htm Although it uses no powder (unless they put a little talc on the pumpkin), it is most certainly a cannon.

You mean like these future NASA scientists and wannabes?

http://www.punkinchunkin.com/

Suggestion for the first test: Enter it in next year's Punkin Chunkin' contest!

I prefer the "Pumpkin Chunkin" contest myself, now that's some range!
http://www.punkinchunkin.com/

What's more fun than shooting a pumpkin over 4,000 ft?! http://www.punkinchunkin.com/results2005.htm

I prefer the "Pumpkin Chunkin" contest myself, now that's some range!
http://www.punkinchunkin.com/

What's more fun than shooting a pumpkin over 4,000 ft?! http://www.punkinchunkin.com/results2005.htm

Slashdotters, please no jokes about how boring life must be in England if chucking a boot passes for sport. There are some redeeming qualities for this sport and one can guess how it got to be established.

So this is basicly the pretentious British nerd version of http://www.punkinchunkin.com/

[A side note: the most important thing to remember is that for this to be successful, you must make the students feel comfortable. I know many students who were turned off to science, and it was always by a bad experience in high school. Students will be interested in science, but it must be understandable to them.

High technology is fun, but the average student doesn't know the first thing about programming or building a robot, and might not find something interesting if they don't understand it. So your project should be aimed at things that build interest, but are also easy for high school students to understand. Take care to emphasize that anyone can do it if they're willing to work at it a little. Students must not be allowed to feel dumb or stupid, or to think that the teacher feels they are.]

If you want something like a fair or competition, you might try a pumpkin' chunkin' competition. I don't mean large scale, though. You could have fun with a smaller competition such as the one at my university. The launchers must fit in a 4-foot cube and must be human powered. These limitations make it fairly safe, and the competition is an entertaining and respected event. In the process, students can learn some basic things about ballistics and engineering.

Alternately, you could form a project to build a larger single device, like a trebuchet or catapult. This can be a lot of fun to fire (for a rally before a big game, perhaps?) and provide a larger project where students can use a variety of skills including math, physics, and metal- or wood-working.

On the other hand, if you want smaller projects that might fit into a short class, here are a few suggestions:

- Anything with liquid nitrogen is cool by definition. :-) You can make liquid nitrogen ice cream, freeze a rubber ball and shatter it, let the nitrogen roll off the back of your hand... all the standard tricks. In addition you could get one of the small superconductor kits and levitate a small magnet; you can talk about new materials research.

- Bring in a strobe light and look at things under it like water from a faucet, a turning bicycle wheel, or other semi-periodic phenomena.

- Astronomy, with a good telescope, can be really fun. Start off with something easy like looking at the surface of the moon, and save calculating orbits for much later. ;-)

- Photography appeals to non-technical students but also introduces a lot of more technical subjects in a non-threatening way.

There are all kinds of great activities that will catch the interest of students. I don't think the kind of activity is as important as its level.

Ask yourself: will the average high school student see your activity advertised and think "I wish I could do that," or "I know I could do that!" ? Use that as your guide.

Good luck!

Punkin' Chunkin' festival in delware around Halloween every year. Get to see pneumatic cannons launch pumpkins close to a mile and marvel at the physics behind the Centrifugal devices. Gives new meaning to BFG!

The annual Pumpkin Chunkin' festival is in Delaware the weekend of November 2-4th. punkinchunkin.com My 3-year old son is gonna love it.

Looks like those damn hippies are at it again, trying to pervert the good old American spirit of throwing things with their drug induced ethos.

Look no further than here,, and search for a team named Loaded Boing, obviously a code word for a marijuana water pipe.

I hope they drug tested the contestants before the competition.

I do see they didn't do very well, proving once again that drugs are a handicap to all your endeavors.

these people are serious about their pumpkin launching. very serious

I guess soon they'll run out of pumpkins, and revert to slinging spam around.

Also there is Pumpkin Chunkin Delaware's annual "Lets see how far we can launch a pumpkin out of a cannon"

With all of the problems (and commercial attemps) with robot wars, I think it needs a few years to mature to something that is viable in the long term.

Yeah, it's really a page about the spud gun. But spud guns are for wimps. Check out the Punkin' Chunkin' contest for the ultimate in vegetable projectiles.

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