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ATOT weekly Engineering & Creative Challenge - WEEK 8 - Ping-Pong Launcher & Boats

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mobobuff said:
Paper cannot be used for the construction of the launcher, only for the support assembly. The launcher cannot be held with your hand while firing, it must be on the ground. If you have an external ignition component, such as a BBQ igniter, you are free to hold that as long as the launcher remains on the ground.

Jello, feel free to add that to the rules. It's my fault, I should've specified that in the first place.
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ouch, this 1 rule might mean i cant make the launcher, my whole design relied on those 3 pieces of paper as the barrel 🙁
 
Freshgeardude said:
you can use toner to make it look nice, i guess, didnt think about that part
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So... uhhh... what can and can't be used to make the boats?

(I took the materials list as the only materials that could be used to make the boat... if we can use toner too, where does it stop?)
 
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Freshgeardude said:
ouch, this 1 rule might mean i cant make the launcher, my whole design relied on those 3 pieces of paper as the barrel 🙁
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I can certainly see why the "launcher must be on the ground" rule makes sense since distance is what we're going after.

I know all these challenges have arbitrary rules to them, but I don't see why there is this paper only used for supports rule is in place.

Mobobuff, can you explain what this paper used as supports is all about? (Seems to limit creativity, and wouldn't seem to give a player and unfair edge)
 
YOyoYOhowsDAjello said:
So... uhhh... what can and can't be used to make the boats?

(I took the materials list as the only materials that could be used to make the boat... if we can use toner too, where does it stop?)
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hmm i didnt think about it until now, it would suck if urs wont be as nice because of this. I guess I should DENY anything else besides the main list to avoid this problem...
 
When I get the chance I will edit the video for my boat and post it. I'll also post pics of my first one which was a failboat but looked nicer.

Question about the engineering challenge, for "Fuel / Ignition system of some sort" what exactly is that? Can I make that part with any materials I want? Can water be used to create steam which then propels the ball?
 
Freshgeardude said:
hmm i didnt think about it until now, it would suck if urs wont be as nice because of this. I guess I should DENY anything else besides the main list to avoid this problem...
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Either way I'm not going to be entering the one where I had used toner, so feel free to just deny it to make things more straightforward. It failed pretty badly and ended up just using foil.
 
I didn't want to have paper used for the launcher for two reasons.

1). Paper is highly flammable, raising safety issues. *
2). A paper barrel could be very long, in turn requiring a larger chamber, and if you've used paper for the barrel you have plenty of pop can to make that larger chamber. This in turn requires more fuel. Thus even more of a safety issue and you'd start to reach ridiculous distances with your shots which I had foreseen would be almost impossible to measure accurately without dispute.

* And if your barrels are catching on fire and you're literally burning through barrels, you haven't really made a successful launcher with only 3 sheets of paper, have you?

In conclusion, the restriction was made for safety issues and to prevent long distance launches that would be difficult to reasonably measure without dispute. If you still do not see any reasoning at all in my logic, or if you can think of a way to accurately measure launches of 60+ feet (remember, it's the distance from the launcher to the ball's first contact with the ground), then maybe we can retract the rule.

*** RULE VOID. PAPER BARREL IS FINE ***
 
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mobobuff said:
I didn't want to have paper used for the launcher for two reasons.

1). Paper is highly flammable, raising safety issues. *
2). A paper barrel could be very long, in turn requiring a larger chamber, and if you've used paper for the barrel you have plenty of pop can to make that larger chamber. This in turn requires more fuel. Thus even more of a safety issue and you'd start to reach ridiculous distances with your shots which I had foreseen would be almost impossible to measure accurately without dispute.

* And if your barrels are catching on fire and you're literally burning through barrels, you haven't really made a successful launcher with only 3 sheets of paper, have you?

In conclusion, the restriction was made for safety issues and to prevent long distance launches that would be difficult to reasonably measure without dispute. If you still do not see any reasoning at all in my logic, or if you can think of a way to accurately measure launches of 60+ feet (remember, it's the distance from the launcher to the ball's first contact with the ground), then maybe we can retract the rule.
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i honestly dont think these devices will go VERY far, like 60+, even if they did, i dont see a problem measuring since people should be firing this in an open area anyways.

so combat the issue with a paper barrel lighting on fire, i was going to line it with aluminum tape on the inside, which should fine.

I'm not sure if its known, but ive already built 2 full size potato gun, 1 hairspray and 1 pneumatic, so i know how to deal with these dangers.
 
Alright, seeing as how you've already designed it with a paper barrel, I'll forget that rule in the interest of non-disgruntled participation. So, go to town.

This applies for everyone else building a launcher as well, paper for the barrel is okay.
 
mobobuff said:
Alright, seeing as how you've already designed it with a paper barrel, I'll forget that rule in the interest of non-disgruntled participation. So, go to town.

This applies for everyone else building a launcher as well, paper for the barrel is okay.
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Awesome, now I can build it. It will be next weekend though, i want to build my boat this weekend, and i still need to buy some supplies
 
Freshgeardude said:
i fucked up my boat design 🙁 it was too boyant it wouldnt stay up... uch like 2 hours gone down the tube
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The materials listed are so light that I think it would be tough to build something that really looked like it was floating in the water with a decent portion of it below the water line. When my aircraft carrier was originally floating, it was just resting on the surface of the water again, and since it had a flat bottom, it stayed upright.

to really get something floating (by what I assume is your definition), you'd have to add a lot of weight to it in order to get it to displace some water.
 
YOyoYOhowsDAjello said:
The materials listed are so light that I think it would be tough to build something that really looked like it was floating in the water with a decent portion of it below the water line. When my aircraft carrier was originally floating, it was just resting on the surface of the water again, and since it had a flat bottom, it stayed upright.

to really get something floating (by what I assume is your definition), you'd have to add a lot of weight to it in order to get it to displace some water.
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well where is the challenge in that 🙂
 
Ok, 6.5 hours later and my "real" boat is still floating upright in the Freshgeardude sense of the word. (I suffered none of the problems of Kevin Costner's crew).

I'll have a video up later today.
 
Ok, first...

If you haven't seen waterworld, you should watch this for context
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46lSslZe6Pk
(Mainly from 7:00 to 7:35)

My Video

WW.JPG

 
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YOyoYOhowsDAjello said:
Ok, first...

If you haven't seen waterworld, you should watch this for context
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46lSslZe6Pk
(Mainly from 7:00 to 7:35)

My Video

WW.JPG

Click to expand...


hehe didnt watch the movie, but i like the boat!

I ran into a problem with the ping pong ball launcher, i was going to do it next weekend, but i realized I have to do a 15 paper, so I can have fun on my birthday weekend :O so, unless i magically finish all 15 pages in 1 day, then i wont be able to do anything for this challenge
 
Starting on my video now, nothing too special.


Edit: Rendering now, then it should take a few hours to upload to youtube... that said I'll post it tomorrow.
 
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