Designing an Egg-Firing Catapult for Physics Expo

[rainyday411]

Im not sure if this is the right section to post this but if it isnt, feel free to move it! :)
My physics class is going to south dakota state university's physics and engineering expo and we all have to enter in at least one of the competitions, my friend and I have entered in a competition called The Scrambler, which consists of:

firing an egg 25 ft. to hit a target that is a foot off the ground.
some of the requirements are:

that the system must launch on its own after the egg has been positioned and remote controlled devices cannot be used.

the device must also be able to be placed in a 50 cm. cube.

Any suggestions? we have a few ideas that consist of a type of catapult that we could wind up like you would with one of those toy cars where you roll it back and when you let it go, it moves really fast. We also were looking up trebuchets but we aren't sure how good that would work. The competition is on april 23 but we would like to start our planning now. Please, any suggestions would be much appreciated!

 

[Valerie Park]

One idea that I can suggest is to build a type of pneumatic launcher. This type of launcher uses air pressure to launch the egg. You could use compressed air tanks to create the air pressure and then use a valve to control the release of the air pressure. You could also use a pulley system to pull back the launcher and then release it, similar to the toy car idea you mentioned. Another idea is to build a type of slingshot. This would involve using a rubber band to pull back the launcher and then releasing it when you are ready to launch the egg. You could also use the same pulley system as above to pull back the launcher. Finally, you could build a type of field goal kicker. This would involve using a motor to pull back the launcher and then release it when you are ready to launch the egg. This would be the most complicated out of all the ideas, but would probably be the most accurate. Good luck with your project!