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Whoosh Boom Splat: The Garage Warrior's Guide to Building Projectile Shooters
These are the homemade machines that you’ve dreamed of building, from the high-voltage Night Lighter 36 spud gun to the Jam Jar Jet, the Marshmallow Shooter, and the Yagua Blowgun Including detailed diagrams and supply lists, Gurstelle’s simple, step-by-step instructions help workshop warriors at any skill level achieve impressively powerful results. With Whoosh Boom Splat, you can build: - The Jam Jar Jet—the simple pulse jet engine that roars - The Elastic Zip Cannon—a membrane-powered shooter that packs a wallop - The Mechanical Toe—a bungee-powered kicking machine - The Vortex Launcher—a projectile shooter that uses air bullets for ammunition - The Clothespin Snap Shooter—the PG-17 version of a clothespin gun that fires fiery projectiles - The Architronito—the steam-powered cannon conceived by Leonardo da Vinci And many more! In addition to learning how to make these cool gadgets, you’ll find sections packed with information on what makes each machine unique. Gurstelle describes the machine’s historical origins as only he can: with verve, fun, and the sort of quirky details his legions of fans love. Whoosh Boom Splat is a must-have for every extreme tinkerer..
Price: $9.70
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Adventures from the Technology Underground: Catapults, Pulsejets, Rail Guns, Flamethrowers, Tesla Coils, Air Cannons, and the Garage Warriors Who Love Them
The technology underground is a thriving, humming, and often literally scintillating subculture of amateur inventors and scientific envelope-pushers who dream up, design, and build machines that whoosh, rumble, fly—and occasionally hurl pumpkins across enormous distances. In the process they astonish us with what is possible when human imagination and ingenuity meet nature’s forces and materials. William Gurstelle spent two years exploring the most fascinating outposts of this world of wonders: meeting and talking to the men and women who care far more for the laws of physics than they do for mundane matters like government regulations and their own personal safety. Adventures from the Technology Underground is Gurstelle’s lively and weirdly compelling report of his travels. In these pages we meet Frank Kosdon and others who draw the scrutiny of the FAA, ATF, and other federal agencies in their pursuit of high-power amateur rocketry, which they demonstrate to impressive—and sometimes explosive—effect at the annual LDRS gathering held in various remote and unpopulated areas (a necessary consideration since that acronym stands for Large Dangerous Rocket Ships). Here also are the underground technologists who turn up at the Burning Man festival in the Nevada high desert, including Lucy Hosking, “the engineer from Hell” and the creator of Satan’s Calliope, aka the World’s Loudest Thing, a pipe organ made from jet engines. Also at Burning Man is Austin “Dr. MegaVolt” Richard, who braves the arcing, sputtering, six-digit voltages of a giant Tesla coil in his protective metal suit. Add in a trip to see medieval-style catapults, air cannons, and supersized slingshots in action at the World Championship Punkin Chunkin competition in Sussex County, Delaware, and forays to the postapocalyptic enclaves of the flamethrower builders and the future-noir pits of the fighting robots, and you have proof positive that the age of invention is still going strong. In the world of science and engineering, despite its buttoned-down image, there’s plenty of fun, humor, and sheer wonder to be found at the fringes. Adventures from the Technology Underground takes you there. • Launch homemade high-power rockets. • Catapult pumpkins the better part of a mile. • Watch robot gladiators saw, flip, and pound one another into high-tech junk heaps. • Dazzle the eye with electrical discharges measured in the hundreds of thousands of volts. • Play with flamethrowers, potato guns, and other decidedly unsafe toys . . . If this is your idea of fun, you’ll have a major good time on this wild ride through today’s Technology Underground. From the Burning Man festival in Nevada’s high desert to the latest gathering of Large Dangerous Rocket Ship builders to Delaware’s annual Punkin Chunkin competition (a celebration of “science, radical self-expression, and beer”), you’ll meet the inspired, government-unregulated, and corporately unfettered men and women who operate at the furthest fringes of science, engineering, and wild-eyed arc welding, building the catapults, ultra-high-voltage electrical devices, incendiary artworks, fighting robots, and other machines that demonstrate what’s possible when physics meets human ingenuity. From the Hardcover edition..
Price: $7.86
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The Practical Guide to Man-Powered Weapons and Ammunition: Experiments with Catapults, Musketballs, Stonebows, Blowpipes, Big Airguns, and Bulletbows
David slew Goliath with his slingshot: for millennia that was the norm, as men used a variety of non-explosive weapons to fire small stones and carefully rounded bullets of clay, glass, and even steel and lead. This unusual study explores in practical detail the many ways, old and new, in which man shot projectiles without recourse to gunpowder. They include the bow and arrow, a favorite for the last 10,000 years; pump-up air guns; blowpipes; catapults; and homemade lead musketballs. There’s information on ammunition and velocity, as well as a lively personal narrative filled with humor and the spirit of experimentation. .
Price: $9.13
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The Crossbow: Its Military and Sporting History, Construction and Use
This unique exploration of a weapon used for centuries will fascinate historians and enthusiasts alike. The crossbow, probably introduced to England by the Norman invaders in 1066, was once considered so barbarous that it was prohibited as a “weapon hateful to God and unfit for Christians.” Sir Ralph Payne-Gallwey, an accomplished engineer, here describes military and sporting crossbows and their dimensions, components, and ranges; provides hard-to-find information on crossbow construction; gives details about modern crossbows such as bullet-shooting crossbows and bolt-shooting crossbows; and peeks at unusual crossbows like the Chinese repeating crossbow. Comprehensively illustrated with original drawings and selections from historical manuscripts, this is a necessary reference book for anyone who hunts with a crossbow or collects or studies weapons of the past. .
Price: $6.94
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Cats' Paws and Catapults: Mechanical Worlds of Nature and People
Nature and humans build their devices with the same earthly materials and use them in the same air and water, pulled by the same gravity Why, then, do their designs diverge so sharply? Humans, for instance, love right angles, while nature's angles are rarely right and usually rounded. Our technology goes around on wheels--and on rotating pulleys, gears, shafts, and cams--yet in nature only the tiny propellers of bacteria spin as true wheels. Our hinges turn because hard parts slide around each other, whereas nature's hinges (a rabbit's ear, for example) more often swing by bending flexible materials. In this marvelously surprising, witty book, Steven Vogel compares these two mechanical worlds, introduces the reader to his field of biomechanics, and explains how the nexus of physical law, size, and convenience of construction determine the designs of both people and nature. Steven Vogel teaches at Duke University..
Price: $8.44
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Stomp Rockets, Catapults, and Kaleidoscopes: 30+ Amazing Science Projects You Can Build for Less than $1
Kids will learn how things they encounter every day operate by building their own models with this hands-on activity book. Projects include building a working model of the human hand’s muscles, bones, and tendons using drinking straws, tape, and string; using a pair of two-liter bottles and a length of rubber tubing to learn how a toilet flushes; and discovering how musical instruments make sounds by fashioning a harmonica, saxophone, drum, flute, or oboe. All devices are designed to use recycled or nearly free materials and common tools. Kids are encouraged to modify and improve the designs, or create an entirely new device using the concepts explored. Each project includes materials and tools lists, step-by-step instructions with photographs, a summary of the science concept demonstrated, and follow-up questions to gauge student understanding for use in the classroom. .
Price: $9.56
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Microsoft Excel 2000 Step by Step (Step By Step (Microsoft))
The legacy of Microsoft(r) Excel 2000 is twofold: provide the most complete set of analysis tools in a spreadsheet, and find ways to simplify existing features and offer new tools that help the user work faster and smarter Add to that more Web integration and collaboration capabilities, and it's no wonder it's one of the world's most comprehensive spreadsheet program. MICROSOFT EXCEL 2000 STEP BY STEP includes advanced Excel topics as it instructs the beginning to advanced user on getting the most out of the powerful spreadsheet program. The personal training system offers easy-to-follow lessons that include clear objectives and real-world business examples. Users can learn exactly what they need to know, at their own pace. Each volume consists of approximately eight hours of instruction with dozens of screen shots and illustrations. A companion CD is included with practice files tightly integrated with the lessons. Other features include a "QuickLook Guide" for easy visual navigation and "Finding the Best Starting Point for You" to help users get the most out of the book. A special binding stays flat when the book is open..
Price: $1.99
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Microsoft Word 2000 Step by Step
Microsoft(r) Word is the best-selling word processor from the Microsoft Office suite of applications. And innovation is at the heart of its success, with new features that enable PC users to focus on content and easily create great-looking documents fast. MICROSOFT WORD 2000 STEP BY STEP instructs the beginning to advanced user on getting the most out of the powerful word processor. The personal training system offers easy-to-follow lessons that include clear objectives and real-world business examples. Users can learn exactly what they need to know, at their own pace. Each volume consists of approximately eight hours of instruction with dozens of screen shots and illustrations. A companion CD is included with practice files tightly integrated with the lessons. Other features include a "QuickLook Guide" for easy visual navigation and "Finding the Best Starting Point for You" to help users get the most out of the book. A special binding stays flat when the book is open..
Price: $2.27
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