Build Me a Catapult!

If I had a dollar for everytime I heard THAT phrase,.... I'd have one dollar.  Anyway, when my son said this to me, I wasn't sure what to do.  First I thought, I am never letting him watch "Mythbusters" again!  Especially the "Pumkin Chunkin'" special.  That aside, I now had an 8 year-old boy asking me to make him a catapult. So, how DOES one build a catapult?

First, I needed to find just the right tool for the job.  The tool I had in mind is a tool that has been indispensable throughout the 20th century and is still essential in any modern-day tool box.  Duct tape.  Having found THAT, I knew that the rest of this project would be a piece of cake.  I got a gift-wrap-like tube,--left over from the "Build Me a Rocket" project-- and taped a plastic salad "spork" (the kind you get from, say, a Costco salad) onto one end of it.  This was to hold the projectile.  On the other end, I duct-taped a plastic grocery bag, into which you could put the "weight" (rocks) used in flinging the projectile. The projectile was, of course, a balled-up bunch of duct tape, about the size of a golf ball. 

So, the way it was supposed to work was that you put the contraption on a stool, put the projectile on the spork, drop the weight, and voila!  You have CATAPULT!!! However, before I could see how it worked, I got a phone call. I told my son to try the catapult, and that when I was done, I would be back to fix any problems that may have arisen during my absense.  So, when I was finished with my phone call, I went back to see how this great example of mechanical ingenuity was faring, and  this is what I found.   I just happened to video-tape it, so you can all see how well it worked. 

Enjoy: