Step 1: Take two popsicle sticks, and join one end together. PS we also tried wooden pencils instead of popsicle sticks and my son and his friend used dried raisins to fling… it was marvellous! Popsicle Stick Catapult Idea 2 What You Need: Step 7: Enjoy flinging your popsicle stick cannonballs at various objects (and people) in the room!. Step 6: Push the spoon down with your finger, and then release. Step 5: Place the ball or pom-pom on the spoon. 
Step 4: Take a plastic spoon and tie it using rubber bands to one of the two-popsicle-assembly you made in step 2. Step 3: Fit the stack of eight sticks that you made earlier in the gap between the two sticks you wound together in step 2. But this time, only tie one end and leave the other end open. Step 2: Take two more popsicle sticks, and tie them together with rubber bands. Step 1: Take eight popsicle sticks together, lay them out horizontally, and tie both ends of the group tightly with rubber bands. A small table tennis ball, pom-poms, or any other small round object that you might like to fling around. 10 popsicle sticks (or wooden pencils if you are out of popsicle sticks). Popsicle Stick Catapult Idea 1 What You Need: Because of this, the ball follows a parabolic path before coming back to the ground. Gravitation is a downward force acting upon the cannonball, which causes a uniform downward component of acceleration in it. Upon release, the spring reacts in the opposite direction flinging the cannonball upwards. When you push down the catapult’s spring, you are exerting a force in the downward direction. Third Law: Every action has an equal and opposite reaction. A heavier cannonball requires greater power to move and therefore travels a lower distance. Second Law: The force required to move an object is directly proportional to its mass. The catapult’s cannonball will not fly until you apply a force on it. It demonstrates: Conservation of EnergyĪ wound spring (or any other elastic object) carries potential energy, which you can convert into kinetic energy upon release.įirst Law : An object at rest stays at rest. The catapult is a dynamite of ideas in both science and maths. Some armies even used catapults in the First World War! The Romans then went on to increase their size and perfect their design.īefore the invention of gun powder, catapults were the weapon of choice if you wanted to fight from a safe distance. Early catapults were just crossbows with a better range. The ancient Greeks and Indians built catapults around the 5th century BC. #POPSICLE CATAPULT HOW TO#
“Daddy, you gotta show us how to build one.” Well, I guess that’s what dads are for, am I right? Here are a few ways to build popsicle stick catapults! The Science & a Bit of History Behind Catapults He asked me if he could play the game on my phone, therefore I looked into it and told him: “Why not build and play with a real one?”įor a moment, the two of them had their mouths agape. One of the older boys at their school was playing it during breaks. This uses both tension and gravity for this motion.So one fine evening, my son and his friend were talking about a game called “The Catapult”. This stored energy is what is used to hurl the piece (the marshmallow). The science behind a catapult motion is that when you bring back the top of the catapult, with the marshmallow ready to fire, you are creating stored energy. So now that you know this will be a fun project with a little history mixed into it, did you know that it is also a lesson in physics? THen see whose will send the marshmallow cannon balls the farthest! Physical Science Experiment for Kids I know catapults were powerful back in the day, but I had no idea how powerful this little one would be.Īnother option is to give kids the materials and have them design and fashion their own diy catapult. I was super surprised how far the marshmallows flew. We decided to shoot marshmallows and make it a marshmallow catapult like one of our favorite books – Marshmallow Incident. You can shoot a variety of things from your craft stick catapult from mini marshmallows, pompoms, small candy, etc. Next we hot glued a water bottle cap to the top popsicle stick on the opening of the V. If you can see from the picture, we made an x with two different rubber bands in the center. Secure these on one end, making a v shape around the stack. Next, place a popsicle stick perpendicularly on top of the stack of popsicle sticks and one on the bottom. The first thing we did is stack 5 popsicle sticks on top of each other and secure with rubber bands on each side. To make this popsicle catapult you only need the following simple materials:
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