Thanksgiving field-goal

Start preparing for the Super Bowl now!

Warn­ing! Only un­der adult su­per­vi­sion.

Equip­ment

  • can­non and shells from the "Pro­jec­tile Can­non" set from the MEL Sci­ence sub­scrip­tion;
  • wood­en sticks;
  • hot glue.

Step-by-step in­struc­tions

First, as­sem­ble a field goal us­ing wood­en sticks and hot glue. In­stall the goal and the can­non, load the ball, aim, and “kick”! If you didn't make the field goal, ad­just the an­gle of “kick” and try again!

Process de­scrip­tion

A ball launched at an an­gle to the hori­zon moves along a par­a­bol­ic tra­jec­to­ry due to the force of grav­i­ty act­ing on it. The cur­va­ture of the tra­jec­to­ry will dif­fer de­pend­ing on the an­gle of in­cli­na­tion and ini­tial speed: its length and max­i­mum lift height can de­pend on these two pa­ram­e­ters. In this ex­per­i­ment, you can con­sid­er the ini­tial ve­loc­i­ty to be fixed, since the de­sign of the can­non and the ten­sion of the rub­ber bands does not change be­tween”kicks.” There­fore, with an in­crease in an­gle up to 45°, the flight range and the max­i­mum height in­crease. As the an­gle in­creas­es from 45° to 90°, the max­i­mum lift con­tin­ues to in­crease, and the flight range, on the con­trary, be­gins to de­crease.

Cool ex­per­i­ments await you in the MEL Sci­ence sub­scrip­tion!!

Try it