Pumpkins, Incoming!

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Image: Chuck.

There's nothing festive about a past-its-prime jack-o-lantern accruing mats of vegetable mold in the the driveway. At this weekend's 2006 Punkin' Chunkin' World Championships in Millsboro, Deleware, a few resourceful folks will pronounce a nobler, or at least more spectacular, good-bye.

A Punkin Chunkin' is a contest to see how far a machine can throw a pumpkin, using no electricity, engines or explosives. Machines may have springs, rubber cords, counterweights, compressed air or any other device that uses the stored power of one human being in a maximum of 10 minutes. Many of the pumpkin throwing machines are mechanical in design, utlizing variations on the medieval trebuchet. The long-range ones use compressed air: in last year's World Championships, Team 2nd Amendment's air cannon threw a pumpkin 4,331.7 feet!

SiegeEngine.com will get you started on building a Punkin Chunkin' machine of your own. Or, alternatively, you could just watch the movie...

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This year's episode of Punkin Chunkin is coming up (I think tomorrow). Discovery just showed a teaser commercial with the specifications for one team's machine.
Here is the deal. Why would you put a lot of effort into explaining something wrong? I just don't get it. Wouldn't it be easier and better to just not say anything? The particular show I am ranting about is the 2008 Punkin Chunkin on Discovery (I think).
I already attacked the 2008 Punkin Chunkin Show. So, now I going to give the chunkers some tips. In case you aren't familiar, the Punkin Chunkin contest has teams create devices to launch a pumpkin.
Just think of how stupid the average person is, and then realize half of them are even stupider! -George Carlin