For Science!
What happens if? That is a question that humans have been asking since the dawn of humanity. What happens if I do this? What happens if I do that? ... and the next thing you know, we have somewhat controlled fire, split the fucking atom, and mastered the art of converting sugar into alcohol. Today, I asked 'What happens if?'
While working on Operation Rufus, I realized five very important things:
- testing will require a projectile that floats
- testing will require a projectile that is consistent in size and weight
- testing will require a projectile that is readily accessible
- testing will require a projectile that is fairly inexpensive
- a can of beer meets all of these requirements
OK, perhaps it wasn't a "what happens if?", but it was most certainly a "If I huck a can of beer into a pond, how foamy will the beer be when I crack it open?", because honestly, there aren't that many experiments that one can do with a trebuchet.... or are there?
So here we go... for science :)
Operation Rufus
Current status: working, not very efficiently. Oh well, at least I have a trebuchet capable of launching stuff. For this test, the projectile is a can of Sierra Nevada Nooner
The Launch
Put can in trebuchet... giver!Retrieval
Not very foamy
The can had a few lumps and bumps from hitting the water, but aside from those few surface distortions, the can was just fine, and there was hardly any foam when I cracked the can.
Tastes just fine
With the exception of a few bits of pond muck, the beer tastes just fine.
Oh hey, me without facial hair.