[Kit Gerhart]

Originally Posted by King Duke

anybody know of a fairly reliable formula for figuring out air resistance on the ball?

I've looked up the formulas online, but all I'm able to find is "high velocity" formulas and I'm not sure what exactly a "high velocity" would be.

At the velocities we will be moving the ball, air resistance would be insignificant. The problem with hurling (not hurdling) the ball is coming up with the energy to accelerate the ball to 20-25 ft/second without using quite a bit of stored energy. While rule <R01> is quite vague regarding stored energy; it says:

"Storage achieved by deformation of ROBOT parts. Teams must be very careful when
incorporating springs or other items to store energy on their ROBOT by means of part or
material deformation. A ROBOT may be rejected at inspection if, in the judgment of the
inspector, such items are unsafe."

It is probably safe to assume that a robot which stores enough energy with steel springs, latex tubing, etc. to throw a track ball over the overpass might have trouble passing inspection because of the safety issue of, for example, the possibility of releasing this energy suddenly into someone's head.