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Unread 18-01-2006, 21:04
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Re: What about a slingshot?

Well, the problem is going to be returning the sling after the shot. A winch and rapid release could potentialy work. It would be a far less contained system though than a flywheel, and with tensioned rubber bands flying around, rather dangerous. The fact is, no matter how much energy your ball takes from the system, you must expend much more (your entire system dumps, energy wise) on every shot. With a constant energy system (flywheel), your sytem only loses the power (with some other nominal losses), that you put into the ball. Everything else is retained, making it easier to return the system to an appropriate energy for the next shot.
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