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aussieguy123123 wrote:I would be interested in comparing these highly competitive entries in terms of achieved projectile range. Do we have information to allow that comparison? If not, then what figures do we have?

Well that's kind of silly considering the tennis ball launcher is firing tennis balls at low pressure and is designed not to shoot them far, the sniper is using small diameter and spherical projectiles while the other two cannons are hybrids, with one shooting golfballs which have less drag than normal spherical projectiles.

MrCrowley wrote:

aussieguy123123 wrote:I would be interested in comparing these highly competitive entries in terms of achieved projectile range. ...

Well that's kind of silly considering [they shoot different projectiles etc.]

I asked a perfectly sensible question that would apply to almost type of machine that launches projectiles, and your thoroughly unhelpful response is to tell me that the question is silly!!!

If I am selecting a projectile-launching device, one of the first things I am going to want to know is its typical range. I don't care if it launches grenades, frozen chickens, cooked spaghetti or confetti, I'll want to know how far each device can launch its most compatible projectile.

To think that I logged on to this forum today because an e-mail notification had arrived suggesting that someone had written something useful to this thread!

I'm sorry but I don't think you quite understand the scope of this contest. Range is not a factor since the contest is for innovation, and what MrCrowley is trying to say is that since they are completely different cannons shooting completely different projectiles, comparing the ranges of each would be a completely unfair and unbalanced match nor is it what the contestants were trying to achieve. No information about range is provided since it was not part of the contest.

Please see the original topic, read under the "Innovative Design Build Off".

http://www.spudfiles.com/forums/spudfil ... 18397.html

Thread cleaned. aussieguy123123 has been sent all the posts by various members in response to him, in a PM'd I compiled.

What exactly is innovation? Can it be combining things that haven't been combined before, or is it coming up with something totally new and different?

Was adding knives and screwdrivers to a pair of pliers innovative, or is innovation more akin to using tungsten and electricity to generate light?

If it is the latter, innovation involving a narrow subject as pneumatic and combustion projectile devices is going to be rare.

After years of refinement, there are few paradigms that have not been explored when it comes to moving mass down a tube. The most common innovation you are going to see here is combining things we have already seen in creative ways with new materials.

With that in mind, I think that all the contestants here did brilliant jobs and are the spudding community's finest innovators.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Innovation

The term innovation refers to a new way of doing something.

The vertical slingshot would qualify. My QDV would qualify at the time. The torch for fuel mix in the TB launcher qualifies in my opinion.

Technician1002 wrote:The torch for fuel mix in the TB launcher qualifies in my opinion.

Unfortunately, we've seen its like before - indeed, there was a large flaming match two and half years ago which was started by some troll who had the idea and insisted that it was automatically superior to normal gas metering.

One link, if you feel like reading it.

Technician1002 wrote: The term innovation refers to a new way of doing something.

Now the way you define something affects the way you determine it's innovation.

Is a torch head a new way of fueling? No. Are hybrids a new way of launching? No. Are chronometers a new way of measuring projectile velocity? No.

If you take a macroscopic view and look at the whole package, then we see the innovation. Is a programmable, integrated chronometer on a pneumatic for tracking performance innovative? I think so. Is making an aluminum piston hybrid without using a mill or lathe innovative? I think so. Making an adjustable pilot pressure piston hybrid out of garage garbage? Sometimes the innovation is getting by with what you have on hand. That embodies the spirit of this site.

What I'm trying to say is that I feel that we got so caught up poo-pooing the "been there done that" sub-systems of the entries that we forgot to see the importance of the orchestration of those sub systems.