Physics Fun

We held an impromptu physics class on our property yesterday. Actually it was part of a Labor Day campout we had with some fellow homeschooling families. If you want a detailed description of what went on you can read about it here. Otherwise, suffice it to say that we had a lot of fun. Being the competitive homeschoolers that we are, instead of just throwing water balloons, we decided to make it a competition. We took our three person slingshot and filled up 50 water balloons. We then went to the pasture and decided that the team to launch their balloon the farthest would be the winners. Here was what the playing field looked like:

As with any group of people, we had a variety of techniques and strategies that were employed, as you can see from the following two pictures. I'll tell you right now, neither of these two teams won.


Even the Dad's rose to the challenge. Here they are trying to out-distance the team that currently held first place.

Not to be outdone by the men, some of us women decided to join in the fun. Here we are getting some council from one of the team members on the current first place team!

Try as we all might, no one, not even the Dad's, could outdistance this group of girls. They shot their balloon all the way down the field and across the road, which is on the other side of those trees (see first picture again)!
Here's where the physics class comes in. How did they do it? Was it their form? Was it the distance that the front two girls were spread apart? Was it the angle that the girl in back shot the balloon? Or was it a combination of these, helped along by the fact that they chose a smaller sized balloon than a lot of their competitors? Sounds like a fun experiment to try again.

God Bless!