- Gurstelle, William.
Backyard Ballistics.
Chicago: Chicago Review Press, 2001.
ISBN 978-1-55652-375-5
-
Responsible adults who have a compelling need to launch potatoes 200
metres downrange at high velocity, turn common paper matches into
solid rockets, fire tennis balls high into the sky with duct taped
together potato chip cans (potatoes again!) and a few drops of lighter
fluid, launch water balloons against the aggressor with nothing more
than surgical tubing and a little muscle power, engender UFO reports
with shimmering dry cleaner bag hot air balloons, and more, will find
the detailed instructions they need for such diversions in this book.
As in his subsequent
Whoosh Boom Splat
(December 2007), the author provides detailed directions for
fabricating these engines of entertainment from, in most cases,
PVC pipe, and the scientific background for each device and
suggestions for further study by the intrepid investigator
who combines the curiosity of the intuitive experimentalist with
the native fascination of the
third chimpanzee
for things that go flash and bang.
If you live in Southern California, I'd counsel putting the Cincinnati
Fire Kite and Dry Cleaner Bag Balloon experiments on hold until after
the next big rain.
July 2008 