How To Make A Ping Pong Ball Launcher

Video How to make a ping pong gunShoot ping pong in the air with this fun (and simple!) You can have everything on hand to make one, and it’s also a great opportunity to learn about energy transfer. Yay for STEM learning!We found this idea on topqa.info and it’s a great idea! Pull the rope back and forth, and the balloon flies!To create one you need:

An empty plastic bottle. We used the small 12 oz. Gatorade bottle size.
Scissors
Rope
Rubber bands – two per toy
A large seed
A nail – to punch a hole in the bottle cap.

The design is quite simple. Cut off the bottom of the bottle. Then cut four notches around the edge. Slide the elastic through the grooves so that they form an X as shown below.Read more: how to tighten a nut without a wrench Use a hammer and nail to poke holes in a bottle cap (adult job). Tie a string to the junction of two elastic bands. Thread the string down through the hole in the cap, then tie a bead to the bottom of the string.When you pull back the beads, the rubber bands receive potential energy. Release the bead, and the energy is transferred to the ball!Lots of fun! You can also shoot these balls inside – ping pong balls are light and they don’t shoot with enough force to hurt anyone.Now this is where this project brings up an interesting technical question. Read more: how to determine the number of signals in c nmr When we do the first signal, we don’t attach the particle. It looked optional, so we just tried shooting without it. The original post said the ball went 15 feet, but ours barely got anywhere! It doesn’t seem to have any power at all. We tried a longer rubber band, which helped some, but not much. So then we decided to try adding seeds. BIG DIFFERENCE! Our ping ball flew all over the room! Or shoot up and hit the ceiling! So what made the difference? I’m not 100% sure, but I think two things are needed here. One is that the wire sticks to your finger a bit when you release it, losing energy. You can get a clean release with beads that prevent power from the rubber bands. The other is that the bead hits the cap when you release it, which causes the rubber bands to stop abruptly, releasing the ping pong ball.Let’s make it an experiment!This would be a great project to do with a class or a group. Children can explore:

Which works better? Seeds or no seeds? Why?
How long is the chain? (We didn’t see a noticeable difference, but we didn’t run any actual comparisons.)
Are the rubber bands tight or loose? (Right)
Does the size of the plastic bottle make a difference in the distance the ball is fired? (We didn’t try this one!)