Making a mini catapult is not only fun, it requires a lot of creativity on your part – that means how fast or how deep you can grab office supplies from your store room or from your dad’s workshop.
There is a mini catapult called the mouse trap catapult and this is made by using a mouse trap itself as the propelling source.
What will you need to make this mini catapult? You will need a mouse trap. Any size will do. Its really up to you. A pair of pliers. A plastic spoon if you have small mouse trap but you should use a light metal spoon for a bigger trap. A teaspoon or tablespoon would suffice. A long length of electrical tape. Why electrical tape? Standard scotch tape tends to tear apart when pulled and the electrical tape can take the stress on it. Any color would also suffice. The good thing about electrical tape is that if you made a mistake in its use, you can just remove it and wrap it again. The electrical tape can be used over and over again before it loses its adhesiveness.
The last item needed is the projectile load. You could use balls of paper, chalk, some used gum, some marshmallows, or even something heavier but if you are making it for fun then use something that wouldn’t cause any pain.
Procedure on how to build a catapult:
Use the pliers to separate the trigger mechanism of the trap from the trigger arm. The trigger mechanism is where the spring is located.
Next, you have to attach the spoon to the trigger arm via tape or glue and make sure it sticks. The spoon should be faced down while you are attaching it and should face down towards the table top.
After the spoon has been attached, gently crank it back towards the trigger mechanism, and load it with any payload, then release.
And that is all that is needed on how to make a mini catapult. There may be variations with the type of mouse trap used but they are essentially the same.
This is one catapult that can be built in under twenty minutes and of course, this may need parental supervision. Still want to know how to build a catapult?
One other type of mini catapult is the one made out of pencils and rubber bands from office equipment. While this is a bit more complex, it does give you time to assemble it and make sure it works right. Please take note that you will really have to use a lot of rubber bands here to bind the pencils together to make its frame.
To create the office type catapult, you need at least 40 rubber bands (any length will do), a dozen unsharpened pencils, a small plastic cap from a soda bottle (to hold the payload) and some scotch tape.
To start, you have to join each pencil using rubber bands to create a half box design. Liberally use the rubber bands to keep the pencils in place. Please note that you are going to build a skeleton or frame similar to a small box.
When that is done, you then have to get a pencil and position it horizontally in the middle and secure it there. That is the pivot point of the catapult. Use another pencil as the arm but you have to secure it like a bow type of mechanism where you pull it to make it stretch.
Once it has been attached, pull the arm back and attach to the end the bottle cap to act as the payload carrier. This is where you will put your pebble or ball of paper. Then as you crank it back, hold a second, then release. And that’s how to build a (mini) catapult.
Depending on how tight or loose the bow arm is, the further the payload can be thrown. Note that while it can be easy on the pocket, people in your office may wonder what happened to all of their pencils. And that’s how to build a catapult!
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