A Supersonic Ping Pong Gun
Popular Physics
2013-01-23 v1 Fluid Dynamics
Abstract
The Ping Pong gun or Ping Pong bazooka has been a popular and compelling tool for physics education. However, the design necessarily means the ball emerges at subsonic speed. The design has been modified to include a pressure chamber and a convergent-divergent nozzle, similar to the design of some supersonic wind tunnels. This modification results in supersonic speeds. The current design has achieved a launch speed of 406 m/sec, about Mach 1.23.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1301.5188,
title = {A Supersonic Ping Pong Gun},
author = {Mark French and Craig Zehrung and Jim Stratton},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1301.5188},
year = {2013}
}