The
contest has added a beauty pageant and cooking contest and chili
cookoff and fireworks—lots of great stuff for the whole family! But
the main event is watching the glorified slingshots and catapults and
robot arms and other machines hurl pumpkins in an effort to achieve
the longest, farthest pumpkin throw.
You
can have your own miniature punkin chunkin day. Can you contrive a
machine that can throw a small pumpkin? Think large rubber bands
between two supports, or a catcher's mitt on a spring-lever, or a
sling that can spin and then release, or...?
(Remember,
the official Punkin Chunkin event started tiny—no audience, just
three guys with their machines and some pumpkins. The first winning
machine hurled a pumpkin 126 feet—and last year's winner flew
farther than 3,000 feet, in front of a crowd of more than 20,000
people!)
Learn
how the Chunkin machines work here.
Instead
of chunkin punkins, perhaps you'd like to start off small. How about
building a catapult to hurl large marshmallows?
UPDATE: Hurricane Sandy dropped a lot of water on the Punkin Chunkin fields, and they are still a bit muddy. Organizers are going to set up today but not will hold the planned Friday events and machine practice runs.
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on this date:
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