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jazzy009 wrote:

Walton Science wrote:
What is the popularity/success rate of using a tube to direct the ball?

it's arguably one of the top three designs used most frequently.
In other words, it's been done and can be done well.

Just to confirm, several of the top designs at nationals last year were tube or "cannon" designs.

we got 14th and ours was a tube type cannon.

anon y mouse wrote:

jazzy009 wrote:

Walton Science wrote:
What is the popularity/success rate of using a tube to direct the ball?

it's arguably one of the top three designs used most frequently.
In other words, it's been done and can be done well.

Just to confirm, several of the top designs at nationals last year were tube or "cannon" designs.

And just to further add, the winning device was a catapult type with an arm with a cup on it that launched the ball at the target.

This year I was on Team 1 of C.P. Weber, my partner and I came in first place. The design is made out of metal. We alternated from two rubber tubing.

Just depends what you want to use as your tube. If you use PVC pipe, the sizes most likely wont match up well on the inside and the rod on the inside will bounce around. However there are many ways to avoid this, and many ways of approaching the cannon design. I personally like the railing design, I just got to execute it well. So many factors to consider, oh the joys of trajectory design.

Nothing beats knowing your machine inside and out. Lots of practice is key, besides having a well-built machine.

For Trajectory B at regionals, it says on the rulesheet that the target can be elevated up to 1 meter, but at intervals of 1 cm. Does this stand true at competition, or are the targets usually at a 1m or .5m height?

That means it can be anywhere from .01 m to 1 m. People normally get what's convenient and mount the target on that, whatever the height is.

But will they tell us how high the target is or will we have to guesstimate? In my experience the target has either been half a meter high or a meter high, nowhere in between. In your experience, has it ever been some weird number like 73 centimeters high or whatever?

They will tell you what height the targets are. Or, if you don't trust them, you can measure yourself. At one invitational we had .32, incidentally.