Marshmallow catapults

Marshmallow catapults

Hypothesis:

Equipment:

1. 1 clean cup
2. 1 balloon
3. 1 pair of scissors
4. 1 marshmallow

Method:

1. Cut the bottom off the cup with the scissors.
2. Cut the balloon half way along the neck.
3. Stretch the balloon over the bottom of the cup. You may find this a bit tricky to start with, but after making a few it becomes easy.
4. Pop your marshmallow into the cup.
5. Fire the missile by pulling the knotted neck of the balloon back and letting it go. You will be surprised at how far it can travel2
6. The open end will fold together when you stretch the balloon, but this will not stop the missile from firing.

Results (Describe what you saw, take a pic/video):

Discussion (What were the energy changes happening, explain what you saw): This activity includes both Kinetic and Elastic energy. The reason for this is because when you are going to shoot the marshmallow out of the shooter. You need to pull the balloon. This would be the elastic energy and then when you let go the marshmallow will fly out this would be the kinetic energy. This phase is called energy transformation.

Conclusion (Was your hypothesis correct, did the experiment work?): Regarding the marshmallow flying out it worked but it wasn’t as strong. The shooter itself was just a little bit hard to work out but worked. The reason for this is because we didn’t have tape to secure the balloon on the cup. Although we tried to hold on the balloon it kept slipping off. My overall opinion is that it did work which was good but it could have been better if we taped on the balloon.
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