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So in our previous video,
we tested the launcher.

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And we noticed that,
several times, the launcher

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threw the ball towards
the left, and we

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wanted to see if we could
straighten that out.

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So we took a look at some
different key components.

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You can see those in red.

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We have our 5/16
stop pin or bolt

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and our PVC cradle
that holds the ball.

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Now currently, what happens
is you pull the bar back,

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and then the ball goes
back with the bar.

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And then you release
the bar, and the ball

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travels forward with the bar.

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And then the bar hits the stop,
but the ball continues on.

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So what we wanted to
see if we could do

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is remove the pin
and the cradle.

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And one of the reasons is
that the pin can potentially

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be a pinch point, and
it also has the effect

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of building up stress in a very
specific point on the aluminum

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bar there.

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And that stress can work
harden the aluminum.

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It actually changes the
crystalline structure

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of the metal over time and
causes it to be more brittle

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and can eventually
cause it to crack.

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And so we were going to see if
we could launch the ball using

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the same kind of technique that
a football kicker would use.

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So there would be a guy holding
the tip of the ball in place,

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and the kicker would wind
up and then kick the ball.

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And instead of the ball
travelling with his foot,

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he would instantaneously contact
the ball that's being held

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in a certain point, and
then the ball would release.

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So we thought it might
be interesting to design

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a device that could
hold the ball in place,

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like the guy that holds the
ball in place for a kicker.

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So we thought maybe we
could take a paper clip

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and bend it to create a
device, shown in purple here,

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to hold the ball in place.

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And then we could remove
the cradle and the stop pin

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and maybe improve the
accuracy and longevity of wear

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and maybe even the
safety of the device.

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So we started with the ball.

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We put it in its location.

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Then we took a needle-nose
pliers and a paper clip

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and started bending
the paper clip

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to create a larger loop at
the top and a smaller loop

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at the bottom.

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The overall paper clip
shape is a C shape

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when you look at it from
the front of the device.

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And so it took a little
while to figure out

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exactly where to
position it, and we

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drilled a hole in
the side of the wood

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and put a panhead
wood screw in there

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to hold the paper clip in place.

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And then we put a little
loop at the bottom

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and put another screw
there to just ensure

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that the paperclip would
be nice and secure.

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And so once we had the
paper clip in place

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and it was connected,
we put the ball in

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and tried to make sure
it was lined up correctly

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so that the launcher
would hit it.

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And at this point in time, we
still have the PVC on there.

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We're still looking at
experimenting with the PVC.

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We will eventually remove that
because it, with the paper

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clip, ended up causing the
ball to launch to the side.

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So we'll do a quick launch
here and just check it out.

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So we decided to do
some field tests,

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and we recorded the
distances and the height

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and the different
angles and positions

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that we launched the ball at.

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And we did this a
number of times.

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We had a little sand
trap set up so we

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could see exactly where
the ball had landed,

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and then we recorded
that and tried

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to figure out if
we could improve

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the launcher in any other ways.

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And we noticed that there
were a couple of opportunities

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for improvement, so we
went back to our drawing

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and made some adaptations.

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Finally, we were
looking at our design,

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and we discovered
that, as we launched

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at steeper and steeper angles,
like right here, when we're

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setting the device at steeper
angles-- at 50 and 60 and 70

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and 80 degrees-- the top
section of the device

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tended to fall backwards
or lean backwards.

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And so when we were
launching the ping-pong ball,

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it was hard to
reliably launch it

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without that top part moving.

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The other thing we
noticed is that we

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wanted to grab the
launcher to stabilize it,

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and we tended to want to
grab it right here, which

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is great except for the
fact that when the aluminum

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bar swings back, it can
smack your hand on this part

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right here.

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So we wanted to make sure
that that wasn't going

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to be a possibility,
and we wanted

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to find a way to keep
this top piece down.

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So what we decided to do was
to create these features.

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So we have a bolt that we've
cut a little bit short.

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It goes right here.

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It's a 5/16 bolt.

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And we have a nylon sleeve
that goes around it,

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and that keeps the launching
apparatus or the top piece

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from coming back or leaning
back when it's at a steep angle.

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And then we used 1/2-inch
plywood to create a cover

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for the spring assembly area.

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And we cut a hole out
in it so you can still

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access that bolt if you need
to loosen or tighten it,

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and cut a half a hole here to
do the same with this bolt.

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But this way, you can
pull the launcher back,

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and there's no chance of any
kind of being pinched or caught

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in any way.

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And so those are the main
innovations on the launcher

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there.

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So now I'm going
to spin it around

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so you can take a look
at it from a number

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of different angles.

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You can see there are one, two,
three, four main pieces of wood

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that hold the cover in place,
and then we have our bolt there

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with the sleeve.

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OK, so now we're
going to see what

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we can do to
improve the launcher

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and make those changes.

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You can already see the bolt
with the sleeve is in place

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there to prevent the launcher
from coming back too far.

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And now we're going to
measure the top part

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of the cover that's going to
go over the spring assembly.

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That'll be 6 and
1/2 inches wide,

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and then we've got
a 1-inch spade bit

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that we're going to use to drill
out the holes for the bolts.

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So that's the center
bolt and the spring bolt.

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And so now we're just
marking the positions.

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We're drilling those bolt holes
out and cleaning that off.

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And we're going to
set our fence up,

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and that fence will allow
us to use the circular saw

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to cut a nice straight edge.

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And we use the
piece of wood there

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to make sure that
the fence didn't

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interfere with the clamps.

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So now we're just trimming
it down to the right length

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and cleaning off the
edges with a file.

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And now what we've done is
we're cutting the side pieces.

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Those are an inch and 3/4
high, and they go all the way

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around the edge of that box.

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And we're cleaning
those pieces off.

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And they're 6 and
1/2 inches wide.

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Then there's one piece
that's 13 inches wide,

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and that's the piece that
runs along the long edge.

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And so now we're just
clamping those in place.

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We've already marked
them 3/8 of an inch up.

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We're drilling our holes
with a 1/16-inch drill bit.

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And now we're just putting inch
and 1/2 panhead wood screws in.

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And we screwed our
top piece on already,

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and now we're going to
put the bottom piece on.

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And just lining that up, using
the clamps to hold it in place,

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and again, 3/8 of an inch up.

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And we're just putting
those screws in.

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Now we're going to go ahead
and put the top part on.

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And we're, again,
pre-drilling all those holes

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and using our panhead wood
screws, putting them in.

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So we have everything lined up.

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The hole in the center
wasn't as clean as we like,

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so I'm going to take a Dremel
and go back and clean that hole

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up, make it a
little bit smoother

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so that it's sure that we're out
of the way of the bolt below.

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So I'm going to take
the cover back off,

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and we're going to assemble
the hardware inside the device

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again.

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So you've seen us
do that before,

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so that's not
anything really new.

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We're just tightening
down our bolts

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and making sure
everything is secure.

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And then we're going
to tighten down

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all the screws for the
new cover on the launcher

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and make sure that it works.

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Now we're shortening
the bolt that we need,

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which was that little green
bolt that was in the drawing,

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and cleaning it off with a file.

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So that's just
going to make sure

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that the major piece
doesn't fold back

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when it's at a steep angle, and
so that's the part right there.

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And there's the original
bolt down below.

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We've got our paper clip
that holds the ball in place

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and keeps everything
lined up, and again, we've

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got our countersunk holes.

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We can drop the device
completely flat.

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And I'll just turn it
around here for you

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so you can see all of
the different components

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and how it looks
and works together.

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And we'll set that
angle bolt in,

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and then we'll put the other
bolt and its sleeve in place.

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And so now we're
going to test fire it.

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Put a ping-pong ball in, and
we got a successful launch.

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So now we're going to
go test it in the field.

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So we've got our
projectile launcher set up,

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and we have our numbers
indicating the height

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on the back in the
black plastic there.

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And then we have
our tape measure,

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so we can measure how far
it goes, or our range.

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Initially, we're going to
set at position 4, which

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is the fourth position back
from horizontal, and angle 20--

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so 20 degrees.

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And you can see where
the ball lands out there.

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We went out and
measured it in the sand.

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The sand lets us see
where the ball landed.

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So we're at 30 degrees
and the same position--

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so the fourth position down.

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And now we're at
40 degrees-- again,

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seeing that the ball
is going up higher.

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Now we're at 50 degrees,
and again, the ball

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keeps going higher.

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And the range of the
ball is decreasing,

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and the height is increasing.

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And so now we're at 60 degrees.

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And as we go higher
and higher, the ball

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tends to veer off a little bit.

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Now we're at 70
degrees, same position.

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The ball completely
goes out of the screen,

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and again, it's not
quite as far away.

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And now we're at 80 degrees.

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So we're going to take a look at
precisely measuring exactly how

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high the ball goes.

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The sand measures our range,
and we can slow the film down

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and see that the ball
went just below 3 feet.

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The top of the paper
is exactly 3 feet,

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so the ball was about 2 feet 10
inches on that particular shot.

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So we're going to
try another one.

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And on that one, again, it
was at 20 degrees, position 4.

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We can see the ball
goes to about 3 feet

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4 inches on that
particular shot.

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So that allows us
to see the height,

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and we can use that
in our calculations.

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Now we're going to see if
we can use this information

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to knock down a tower of cups.

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So we've got it all set up.

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This is position 4, 20 degrees.

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Yeah.

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Only three tries.