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Yep! We have! But we started by looking at one at the Witte Museum in
San Antonio.  There's shot straight up and had a large wire mesh funnel
to catch it.  Ours shot at an angle of about 45 degrees and was captured
between a net and the wall.  There's was about how high it could go.
Ours had a target (aluminum tube bell) to hit.  You had to fines it or
it would go over or under the target.

It has to be built well since it is a bowling ball being lifted and
dropped.  And there are some things that might not seem obvious like the
fact that the large tube the bowling ball drops in does not have to be
as tall as the height it gets lifted to and then there are some issues
with how much smaller diameter tube is between the large tube and the
tennis ball.  Oh, and we used "hairless" practice balls.

It was a blast and well worth building.  We plan on bringing it back out
in a year or two. I can send some pictures if you'd like.

Erich Rose
Exhibit Manager
Austin Children's Museum
201 Colorado Street
Austin, TX 78701
512-472-2499 x207, fax 512-472-2495
[log in to unmask], www.austinkids.org
 
-----Original Message-----
From: Informal Science Education Network
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Kathy Krafft
Sent: Friday, May 02, 2008 2:19 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: tennis ball launcher

ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology
Centers
Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related
institutions.
************************************************************************
*****

Hi all--

Somewhere, long ago, one of our wonderful volunteers saw a neat exhibit 
where a small diameter pipe is connected near the bottom of a large 
diameter pipe.  A bowling ball drops down the large pipe, compressing 
the air inside it;  this causes the tennis ball resting on the smaller 
diameter tube to shoot way up in the air.  He'd like to build one for 
our outdoor Science Park area.

Our early experiments have not been very successful.  Any hints or 
suggestions as to someone who has done this successfully would be most 
appreciated!

Kathy Krafft
Exhibit Projects Director
Sciencenter
Ithaca, NY
607-272-0600 x25

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