Play Catapult

Making a rat-trap catapult is not just an inexpensive and entertaining project that you can do with your kids, but an opportunity for an impromptu physics lesson where you can explain about motion, forces, levers and energy. The catapult will cost around $5 to make and take 10 to 15 minutes to construct. The kids can use marshmallows, screwed-up scraps of damp newspaper or pieces of candy as ammunition and have competitions to shoot the furthest and/or most accurately.

Instructions

1 Remove the trigger mechanism, which is to one side of the central spring, using pliers and a screwdriver, if you need one, to prise the mechanism away from the base. Also remove the trigger arm. This usually fixes across one half of the engaged trap to hold the square trap wire, or snapper, in place.
2 Pull the snapper up from the base and place a tongue depressor underneath its width. Adjust the depressor so that the side nearest the top of the snapper lies flush along the top wire. Centralize the tongue depressor so that equal lengths jut out on either side of the snapper and secure it in place with duct tape.
3 Take a second tongue depressor and tape it so that it vertically crosses the first one at the bottom and, when the snapper is vertical, this depressor is too. Use plenty of duct tape to firmly secure the construction.
4 Tape the handle of a plastic spoon along this depressor leaving its bowl jutting out above the top. The back of the spoon rests against the front of the depressor which faces away from the snapper. Use many layers of tightly wound duct tape to create a firm bond.
5 Pull the snapper back against the resistance of the spring using the sides of the horizontal depressor to help you. For maximum firepower, pull the construction back fully so that the snapper is in its usual position when the trap is engaged. Press down on the horizontal depressor while you load the spoon bowl with ammunition. Hold the rat-trap base flat on the work surface with one hand ensuring that it is not in the way of the firing mechanism. When you are satisfied, release the firing mechanism.

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