Smashing Pumpkins: ISU Physics Club Puts Trebuchet to the Test
By: Kim Behrens
Updated: November 2, 2012
NORMAL--Local students are giving pumpkins a powerful purpose this post Halloween season.
Using a trebuchet, they're turning pumpkins into flying objects--soaring at speeds up to 140 miles per hour.
The device is crafted by the Illinois State University physics club.
Named "Reggie's Chuckin' Wagon" after the school mascot, it has enough power to set pumpkins sailing a quarter mile.
Students tested their contraption at the ISU farm in Normal.
Physics club member Jamie Svetich say gravity combined with g-forces makes for a really good show.
"I was looking up at the sky because I fell on my back," Svetich laughs. "But, as soon as I got up, I looked and I could barely see it. I play golf so it was just like trying to find the golf ball in the sky. It really goes far."
Turns out, "Reggie's Chuckin Wagon" has taken first place in the adult trebuchet division at the Morton pumpkin festival.
Students have earned the top honor four times.
Using a trebuchet, they're turning pumpkins into flying objects--soaring at speeds up to 140 miles per hour.
The device is crafted by the Illinois State University physics club.
Named "Reggie's Chuckin' Wagon" after the school mascot, it has enough power to set pumpkins sailing a quarter mile.
Students tested their contraption at the ISU farm in Normal.
Physics club member Jamie Svetich say gravity combined with g-forces makes for a really good show.
"I was looking up at the sky because I fell on my back," Svetich laughs. "But, as soon as I got up, I looked and I could barely see it. I play golf so it was just like trying to find the golf ball in the sky. It really goes far."
Turns out, "Reggie's Chuckin Wagon" has taken first place in the adult trebuchet division at the Morton pumpkin festival.
Students have earned the top honor four times.
