In my quest for the wacky, I have procured 100 feet of bungy cord. I strung it up from a high branch on a large white oak behind my house to see if the elasticity would be such that I could possibly build a large sling shot with it. I tested it with my own weight, 220 lbs, it held me perfectly.
Much to my wifes dismay, I found the elasticity good enough to make the contraption have the potential to be quite powerful. So my first round of tests went like this: I needed to find something to launch. I also needed enough room behind the launch site so as not to hit anything.
I chose two large trees, roughly 70 feet appart. I strung-up two ends of said bungy to the trees, roughly 12 feet off the ground each. I fitted a broom stick with an inverted ‘trigger’ on one end, and duct-taped a 5lb diving weight to the other end of the handle. I cut out 3 hard plastic fins - for the weighted end of the stick.
Wishing to ‘fire’ the projectile maybe halfway across my five acre knoll behind the house I hooked the inverted trigger to the cord in the middle, and pulled it back. I walked maybe 20 paces backward before letting it go.
Holy Cow! it went far! I’m guesstimating 1500 yards WOW!
I have not found a practical use for the cord as of yet, but the experiment was fun!
Well, for one thing, I would be cautious about pulling back on the world’s largest slingshot
In the Navy they showed us films demonstrating an interesting phenomenon called “synthetic line snapback” that cost many sailors arms, legs, or even their lives.
I’m certain that there isn’t nearly the same amount of energy stored in your slingshot as in a synthetic line straining against an aircraft carrier, but it would certainly smart if anything came loose.
Of course, I would probably be launching all kinds of cool stuff too, trembling with fear each time I pulled back on it.
My first thought was to give Bush and his administration all free bungy jumps off a 98 foot bridge, but that is just mean of me and I shouldn’t say that.
WOW!