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arXiv · 1301.5188

A Supersonic Ping Pong Gun

Mark French·Craig Zehrung·Jim Stratton
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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.

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Mark French, Craig Zehrung, Jim Stratton. 2013-01-22. A Supersonic Ping Pong Gun. https://arxiv.org/abs/1301.5188

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