🚀 go-pugleaf

hi,

i have seen many posts here about flinging and catapaulting water ballons
and other objects, and that got me thinking.  Has anyone out there
seen the Northern Exposure episodes when they fling things? (a coffin, and 
a piano)  I think that this was also in Car and driver where they flung a
small british car.  It is something that was developed in the middle ages
for seiges.   Could this be effectively adapted to a waterballoon, or small
fruit projectile size.
The basic idea is that there is a big weight on one end of a beam, and 
the object to be flung is attached to the other end by a cable.
as the weight falls, the object is pulled up really fast, since that
end is much longer than the end with the weight. 
it seems that this arrangement would be better for the balloon, since 
the acceleration is much more gradual than a catapault or elastic.

later 
eric

-- 
kwix@vax5.cit.cornell.edu