Catapult

For Father's Day, Boogs gave Daddy a Tabletop Catapult Kit. The kit came with a book about 7 different types of ancient catapult designs. Boogs said he wants to try and make them all. The weather was perfect this weekend to hang out on the back porch and put it together.

Boogs very carefully followed the directions.

Daddy helped him get things just right.

Tightening the tension on the rope.

Boogs aimed the first shot at me then Daddy let him aim the next shot at him. (We were listening to an all 80s radio station. They just don't make songs like Toy Soldiers anymore.)

We changed from brown to pink clay so we could locate the projectile easier.

Boogs even tried out the catapult with two projectiles at once.

We had a lot of fun working on this catapult. Last week I looked at Hey Mommy, Chocolate Milk's blog on the day she posted about a physics experiment for her young son. She introduced the words aerodynamic and trajectory for her activity. I realized it would be the perfect time to introduce the word trajectory to Boogs while he was fine tuning his catapult's aim.

Boogs moved the catapult all over the porch, tried to get a clay ball in the bowl, aimed at us, shot 5 clay balls from the same location and then measured to see which went the farthest. We discussed the variables that influenced the differences between the clay balls - weight, size, shape. Later in the day, Boogs and I went online to look at videos of catapults and trebuchets in action. This is one Boogs particularly liked:
 Trebuchet throwing car & piano

I think we will be playing with this for a long time to come.