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Show Engineering Week Competition to offer balloon fling A water balloon contest will test the accuracy ac-curacy of homemade catapults designed by students Thursday as part of Engineers i Week. Two cash awards will be made one for accuracy and one for theoretical design but there are no specifications for entries, so anything goes, Thursday at 3 p.m. in the area west of Merrill Engineering Building. The objective, according to entrants David Wong and Don Gardner, is to hurl a one-half-pound water balloon 200 feet from catapult to target. The mechanical engineering seniors agree that all entries will have some kind of frame and spring, and most will use a lever. But each student is expected to find a unique solution to the problem. Mr. Gardner has constructed a sturdy wooden frame and attached a long metal lever arm. He'll use surgical tubing as his spring. Mr. Wong, on the other hand, based his design on techniques used in ancient Roman warfare. His catapult will be operated by a leaf spring, one of the strongest springs available. Like the other contestants, the two University students have salvaged their catapult parts from odds and ends found at home and in junkyards. The best-designed catapult can go awry if the missile is defective, warned Mr. Wong, who is chairman of the competition. He said the force of the launching stretches the balloons and sometimes causes them to wobble off course or burst. The University students say the educational value of the contest is in the practical experience of designing. The know-how comes from classes in elementary physics, dynamics and statics, and strength of materials, but "experiment is the key to success." Students from local high schools have been invited to join the competition. "What they lack in knowledge, they can make up in additional time spent on the . project," say the University spokesmen. "It's really just a matter of trial and error." Other Engineers Week events held on campus Thursday through Saturday include in-clude exhibits and tours of engineering facilities, a keynote speech and a free pollution control auto clinic. The public is invited to attend the Merrill Engineering Building open house -from 2 to 8 p.m. Friday and noon to 5 p.m. Saturday. |