Fire Away

The fire away project is a catapult made from 4 pieces of wood, 3 rubber bands, a projectile made of clay and one steel pipe. Our catapult is a total of 30in tall, and 16 1/2in wide.

Making this we added 3 levels, one with a distance of 10in, 15in, and 20in. Our projectile moved the farthest at the 17 mark. Using a 23in arm of 23in, we went the furthest distance of 17m.

The 5 things we changed about our design were,

1. The meterall of the string changed from fabric string to fishing line. This worked better because the fishing line was a slipper consistency, which gave the overall have less friction.

2. Making our projectile a lighter weight of 0.009. We had to make the projectile just the right size so it didn't have too much air resistance but not so heavy that gravity would pull it down right away.

3. We made the arm longer and lighter, because it traveled more distance in a short time.

4. We added 3 rubber bands. We originally only had 1. Only having 1 band was two stretchy. We need more resistance for the arm to really snap back, so adding 2 more gave the perfect snap.

5. We changed where the rubber bands get placed on the button of the board. We first had the bands in the middle of the bord, but quickly realized that we would get better results with the bands at the very edge of the bord. Having it start at the very edge instead of the middle of the bord had the projectile moving at a faster rate.

Having an arm of about 23in, this gives our catapult enough momentum to go a far distance of 17m. Having a logger arm means that it will travel more distance in the same short amount of time.