Backyard Ballistics: Build Potato Cannons, Paper Match Rockets, Cincinnati Fire Kites, Tennis Ball Mortars, and More Dynamite Devices

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More About This Book

Overview

Ordinary folks can construct 13 awesome ballistic devices in their garage or basement workshops using inexpensive household or hardware store materials and this step-by-step guide. Clear instructions, diagrams, and photographs show how to build projects ranging from the simple—a match-powered rocket—to the more complex—a scale-model, table-top catapult—to the offbeat—a tennis ball cannon. With a strong emphasis on safety, the book also gives tips on troubleshooting, explains the physics behind the projects, and profiles scientists and extraordinary experimenters such as Alfred Nobel, Robert Goddard, and Isaac Newton. This book will be indispensable for the legions of backyard toy-rocket launchers and fireworks fanatics who wish every day was the fourth of July.

Editorial Reviews

Chicago Tribune
Would-be rocketeers, take note: Engineer William Gurstelle has written a book for you.
Constable
Offers a safe, cheap, and legal, labor-intensive and intellectually challenging to the 'oops I blew off my fingers' debacle.
— Arlington Heights Daily Herald
More Reviews (6) Fewer Reviews
Journal of Chemical Education
Fun and thrilling.
Plain Dealer
To inspire kids to spend more time exploring science.
St. Paul Pioneer Press
13 projects engineered to be safe yet exciting and able to be built with household and hardware-store supplies.
The Daily Oklahoman
"...shows the safe way to amaze and annoy your neighbors with amateur science projects."
DallasNews.com
Your inner boy will get a bang out of these 13 devices to build and shoot in your own backyard, some of them noisy enough to legally perk up a 4th of July.
Time Out New York
If you'd like to launch a potato in a blazing fireball of combusting hairspray from a PVC pipe, this is your best source.

Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9781556523755
  • Publisher: Chicago Review Press, Incorporated
  • Publication date: 6/28/2001
  • Pages: 274
  • Sales rank: 53,243
  • Product dimensions: 7.09 (w) x 9.90 (h) x 0.50 (d)

Meet the Author

William Gurstelle is the author of Absinthe and Flamethrowers,  The Art of the Catapult,  the bestselling Backyard Ballistics, Building Bots, Whoosh, Boom, Splat, and Notes from the Technology Underground. He is a professional engineer who has been researching and building model catapults and ballistic devices for more than 30 years. He is a contributing editor at Make magazine and writes frequently for Wired, The Rake, and several other national magazines. He can be contacted at nfttu.blogspot.com.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments xi
Introduction xiii
1 Keeping Safety in Mind 1
2 The Potato Cannon 7
3 Back Porch Rocketry 23
The Paper Match Rocket
The Hydro Pump Rocket
The Pneumatic Missile
4 The Cincinnati Fire Kite 49
5 Greek Fire and the Catapult 61
6 The Tennis Ball Mortar 77
7 The Flinger 89
8 Pnewton's Petard 103
9 The Dry Cleaner Bag Balloon 121
10 The Carbide Cannon 131
11 The Ballistic Pendulum 147
Ideas for Further Study 157
Index 165

Customer Reviews

Average Rating 4
( 14 )

Rating Distribution

5 Star

(7)

4 Star

(4)

3 Star

(0)

2 Star

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1 Star

(3)

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Sort by: Showing all of 14 Customer Reviews

  • Anonymous

    Posted February 14, 2005

    awesome

    It was the best stinkin book ever i learned lots of kewl stuff

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

    Was this review helpful? Yes  NoThank you for your feedback.   Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.

  • Anonymous

    Posted May 11, 2012

    COOL

    Biz*-*+'-'+"-"+!-!=`¿`

    Was this review helpful? Yes  NoThank you for your feedback.   Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.

  • Anonymous

    Posted May 2, 2012

    For the guy five spaces down

    Really? Not very nice.

    Was this review helpful? Yes  NoThank you for your feedback.   Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.

  • Posted March 6, 2012

    Good Book

    i thought this was a really good book but it was a little hard to follow

    Was this review helpful? Yes  NoThank you for your feedback.   Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.

  • Posted February 23, 2009

    Good

    Good but lacking in speceific details

    Was this review helpful? Yes  NoThank you for your feedback.   Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.

  • Anonymous

    Posted January 13, 2005

    Kaboom, goodbye neighbor

    A great book, legal, yet a great way to discover the long-lost ideas to blowing up your neighbor's house-cat, and they work, i can still remember the time I shot off the potatoe cannon, followed by a pitiful yelp of my next door neighbor's Rottwiler...I LOVE Blowing things UP!!!! This is a great way to annoy or destroy your little sister's dreamworld

    Was this review helpful? Yes  NoThank you for your feedback.   Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.

  • Anonymous

    Posted December 2, 2003

    KABOOM!!

    Yup, kaboom seems to be the only word able to describe the immense power that this book holds inbetween its two covers. If you enjoy the scientific background this book has to offer, or you just simply get a kick out of making potatos fly at mach 10, then I really feel that this book is for you. Mashed potatos anybody?

    Was this review helpful? Yes  NoThank you for your feedback.   Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.

  • Anonymous

    Posted December 8, 2001

    Backyard Ballistics

    I really liked this book. It has a lot of cool projects in it. I just made an awesome potato cannon. This book is great for anyone interested in SCIENCE.

    Was this review helpful? Yes  NoThank you for your feedback.   Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.

  • Anonymous

    Posted November 25, 2001

    Fun Science

    Every day can be the 4th of July with this book in your personal library. Gurstelle provides good instructionns on how to build a variety of devices. He also researched the history behind them and related ballistics. There are plenty of warnings and reminders about safety procedures, too.

    Was this review helpful? Yes  NoThank you for your feedback.   Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.

  • Anonymous

    Posted December 26, 2009

    No text was provided for this review.

  • Anonymous

    Posted October 24, 2008

    No text was provided for this review.

  • Anonymous

    Posted December 8, 2009

    No text was provided for this review.

  • Anonymous

    Posted March 31, 2009

    No text was provided for this review.

  • Anonymous

    Posted November 3, 2009

    No text was provided for this review.

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