Attention, MBers within driving distance of Morgantown, West Virginia: West Virginia University will hold its 22nd annual Pumpkin Drop on Friday, October 30.
What’s a Pumpkin Drop? Nancy Kangas and her son Aaron can tell you. So can Purple Panda and her family. They’ve all dropped pumpkins in previous years.
You can find more information at www . mae.cemr.wvu . edu/news/news-details.php?item=1272 .
And you can see how Pan & Co. did it right here on the blog.
Didn’t a very old Muse have an article on this?
Yes, I belive they did. I vaugely remember an article about the actual drop and a cartoon of someone dropping random stuff like people named Hoyt off a bulding.
Wow, cool! Too bad I don’t live close enough to West Virginia to go…
First post? Sorry if this is a PoPo.
First post? Is pumpkin drop exactly what it sounds like? That would be cool!
Old Muse, Enceladus? It wasn’t that old……Was it? I still remember it….
LBK–Yup, they drop pumpkins off of the top of a building, in various contraptions designed to keep the pumpkin from exploding on impact…..
Speaking of which, i remember it mention no packing peanuts in the article in Muse, and yet one of the pictures had….You guessed it, packing peanuts pouring out of the cardboard box. I’d been thinking…..Maybe those biodegradable ones are acceptable? The ones that dissolve in water? That could be incredibly useful. Or those nice little “air pocket” packing things, not bubble wrap, but the ones with bigger pockets of air…..
*sigh* i wish i could go.
Yes, it was that old. My very first issue had the letter about packing peanuts.
My very first issue was April 2003, the one about Fashion, which came right after the Call of the Cryptile Lizard and right before the issue on Rube Goldberg Machines. The issue that included the Pumpkin Drop wasn’t until October 2003, so I guess that makes me doubly-old!
I’ve never done a pumpkin drop before, but I’ve done egg drops, both normal and Da Vinci-style.
(1, 4) You can find it on the Muse Contents Page on the pull-down menu under the HG2MB.
Speaking of which, our Contents Page leaves off at the April 2009 issue. Anyone like to add a few more? We’d be most appreciative.
2003?????? Oh, dear god, that is a bit old, isn’t it?
It’s official. I’m old.
I personally don’t o to West Virgina because of cannibel ugly people.(Wrong Turn the movie)
SFTDP
NOT AGAIN. I put in wrong email.
To anyone thinking of doing a pumpkin drop, supposedly organic fruits and veggies have stronger, tougher outsides to keep out bugs and whatnot. I’m not sure if that would add up to a tougher pumpkin, but it may give you a slight advantage.
(PoPo?)
I’ve dropped a cantaloupe out of a second story window. It cracked a bit, but the skin protected it. Now, the watermelon was a lot more interesting! The egg was just disgusting.
(8) I’m told that pumpkin-chuckers, the people at M.I.T. and elsewhere who fire pumpkins out of cannons and trebuchets for distance, favor white pumpkins. Apparently they have thicker shells.
One of my friends did the pumpkin chuck in 5th grade. He helped to build a trebuchet.
My brother built a tiny trebuchet. It could probably fling an egg.
9-
that’s awesome!
Once in 7th grade some friends and I built three small catapults and a styrafoam castle and staged a mideval battle for a history progect. The dent in the wall still might be there. I will have to check.
Then an organic white pumpkin would be the ultimate combo!
My engineering class is participating in the local Punkin’ Chunkin’ this weekend (only I can’t be there because of marching band >.<).
We're using orange pumpkins because we could get a local orchard to donate them.
Then again, our competition is based on distance and accuracy, not if it goes splat.
(Our trebuchet is twelve feet tall, plus wheels. It's throwing around 185 feet, we want 210 by Sunday. relatively accurate, though. and awesome.)
There WAS once an article. I have it in a back issue the library gave us … wish I lived in West Virginia!
You’d be new? Welcome! Go to the Welcome Neophytes thread for pies and welcomes. It can be found https://musefanpage.com/blog/?p=4433
((Sorry, for some reason none of my links are working…?))
Oh, the Pumpkin Drop! I would love to go to the Pumpkin Drop again. Unfortunately, I can’t miss any more school and that’s a chemo weekend for my mom, so I would have no means of transportation. But if anyone goes–have a great time!
Are any Musers or GAPAs going this year?
I saw this thing on the news where this guy in Texas built a fruit cannon, and all the fruit exploded before it flew anywhere. Pretty dumb.