Posted on 06/24/2010 12:57:15 AM PDT by SWAMPSNIPER
I found a disc I thought I'd lost when I moved. These shots are from October of 2004, grandson Gerry built a trebuchet for the school science fair.
The project was approved in advance but when Gerry started setting up, and they realized what a trebuchet is, they confiscated his tennis balls, LOL
In the last shot you can see a ball headed downrange, up in the top right corner.
Pinglist
LOL.
God bless our American youth.
That’s awesome! Good on you and your son!
Most excellent. Nice work on that.
Thanks, this is my politically incorrect grandson, got to raise them to be brave and free.
Confiscated tennis balls? Amazing.
In 1971 my grade school hosted rocket launches on Saturday morning. In 1963/4 in Anaheim the neighbor two doors down from us (a policeman) placed a tin can on a brick in the middle of the street, lit its fuse, and I (four years old) watched as that tin can (filled with gunpowder) shot high up into the sky. That same street, on Independence Day, was festive with fireworks that are distant memories.
Why do I bring these up? Just memories of my childhood, of a world gone — when America had spirit and goals and wasn’t timid. I miss it.
I have a catapult.
Unless you give me all the money,
I will throw an enormous rock at your head.
ANON
Amazing project and adorable kid. Congratulations.
BTW, my husband was kicked out of the Science Fair at our high school (actually it was a city wide project) in 1955, or ‘56 when the FBI complained about his project and yanked it. He had made a model of a nuclear sub which the FBI deemed was too accurate. One of his resources had been our HS chemistry teacher who had been part of the Manhatten Project 15 years prior.
Now if he was going to launch BASEBALLS that would be dangerous.
This shows the idiotic nature of political correctness. It is not the danger posed by a thing but the symbolic value of the object.
A tennis ball launched by a trebuchet has nearly zero chance of harming anyone, but because the tennis ball launched by a trebuchet symbolizes a missile used as a weapon of war it must not be permitted to pollute the minds of our impressionable youth.
It looks like your son did an excellent job by the way.
Shades of October Sky, the movie rendition of Rocket Boys by Homer Hickham. Link
A great movie and a true story to share with your kids. My kids gave it to us for an anniversary present one year and we have thoroughly enjoyed it and lent it to others.
For next year's fair he should build a linear electromagnetic metallic accelerator.
Every neighborhood needs a kid with a railgun! ;)
OS <-— not a kid anymore, and still wants a railgun of his own!
The project was approved in advance but when Gerry started setting up, and they realized what a trebuchet is, they confiscated his tennis balls, LOL
Well yeah. They had to confiscate them.
He could put someone's eye out.
Plus, in the right hands, Tennis Balls are Lethal Weapons.
I read that Ninjas used them all the time ;-)
(Vanity) In Praise of a Simpler Time, or, Dude, Where's My Childhood?
Cheers!
A Weapon Toy! ! !
There is hope for America, yet.
You must be very proud.
I know I would be.
Excellent, looks like a great Boy Scout project too. Keep that thing around, you might just need it.
"Trebuchet". Sounds French...Can't involve violence. LOL
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