Mind you, this is not just play time. The boy must mark out with a tape measure, the distances and mark them (math)-then once we have the distances marked, we will (do this next week) average out each item's distance traveled (math again). We also are seeing physics and aerodynamics in play. We make predictions on which item will go the furthest (so we're calculating mass to figure this out)...and so on. Plus, it is just plain fun. We had a gorgeous day and our results were fun.
not sure where the ball was-but these were the main contenders
Results:
Pumpkin did the worst-but was consistent
Frog was quite the flyer actually, beating pumpkin by at least 4 ft each time
Rock, well it did pretty good-it was all over the place
Ball went fairly far but wasn't giving us the results we expected
Die was the champion hands down! It rocked the competition and the winning catapult was at 29 ft. 6 in.!
Facts:
We didn't touch the tension at first-so pumpkin could have gone farther after we tightened it right? Nope. Didn't go but an inch or so farther after-interesting heh?
Once tightening the tension-things did go further.
The catapult we have cannot withstand our grueling tests-we needed to tape the bar that the catapult arm slams against-so hopefully, next year we can do this with a new one. This baby needs to retire.
I pointed out the pumpkin-I actually caught it just before it landed-cool!
And there you have it-our annual pumpkin catapult results.
1 comment:
That looks like so much fun!!! My boys would love it. We did catapulting recently with a homemade one (from blocks), but this one looks much better. Hmmm ... maybe we should consider this next year at the homeschool conference. Way to go in making your school day a fun one!
Hugs to you!
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