Smashing Pumpkins for Physics Lesson

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Smashing pumpkins is usually an act of vandalism, but that was not the case for this physics class.

Pumpkins went flying into the air before smashing onto the ground.

This experiment is for a physics lesson at Davies High School on projectile motion.

Groups were given the assignment four weeks ago to build their machines.

Students put in two to 20 hours depending on how big they wanted their catapults.

They had to calculate the distance and launch time to determine the total velocity.

“What they’re trying to do here is not just look at the projectile motion terms of the math piece but also tie into our four C’s we’re focusing on in the district,” says Davies High School Physics Instructor Shawn Carney.

The four C’s are creativity, collaboration, communication and critical thinking.

Last year’s longest distance for a launched pumpkin was 26 meters.

This year it flew 43 meters.

Smashing the previous record.