There have probably been thousands of speed challenge ideas submitted already but I think I have a new twist for this challenge. The object is to mechanically fire, shoot or throw a standard baseball and the fastest wins. Radar guns would measure velocity and there are a variety of methods that can be used. The good old pitching machine would probably be the best method but with the right gearing and a V-8 engine I'm sure you could get the ball going a few hundred miles an hour. Explosives would have to be ruled out because this would just make it a cannon and we've all seen that challenge. Guest host could be any famous baseball player. The American past-time meets the junkyard!!!!!!!

-- percy ehnes (pehnes@hotmail.com), March 23, 2001

Answers

Or give them a bat and some baseballs... who can build a machine to hit the ball the farthest.

cheers,

-- Max (Maxel@inwindsor.com), March 23, 2001.

Actually, speed=distance....usually. Since everything falls at the same rate, things that are going faster will go farther. The only caveat to this is that if you aim something at a better angle, then a slower item could travel farther than a faster moving one.

However, to make your idea even better...use water balloons. How do you accelerate a water balloon to 50,000 mph without breaking it in the process. Much tougher.

Brian

-- Brian Flynn (bflynn@nc.rr.com), March 26, 2001.

How do you accelerate ANYTHING to 50,000 mph? NASA called- They want to know, too! Earth Orbital Velocity is about 18,600 mph, while Earth Escape Velocity is something around 26,500 mph. I think the fastest anyone has propelled anything on JYW was the Brothers In Arms' last cannon shot, the one with the "grapeshot" hex nuts. It was slightly faster than the speed of sound- just above 750 mph, as I recall. so maybe the World's Fastest Baseball (without explosives) would be an ntersting challenge! Then again, this is an English show. Would a bright red cricket ball do?

-- Chip Haynes (ehaynes@co.pinellas.fl.us), March 28, 2001.