Tennis ball gun, muzzle velocity

AI Thread Summary
The discussion revolves around designing a tennis ball gun that is elastic-powered and aims to achieve a muzzle velocity sufficient for the ball to travel 50 meters at a 20-degree incline. The designer is exploring the use of a dense coil of catapult elastic, activated by a geared crank, to propel the ball through a bellows mechanism. Key calculations involve determining the necessary muzzle velocity, the energy required to reach that velocity, and the energy storage capacity of the elastic. The designer seeks confirmation that their design can achieve the desired range with the available elastic. Further insights and calculations are welcomed to refine the design.
Gavinp
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I am designing a tennis ball gun and am trying to work out the forces involved. It is essentially elastic powered but at this stage all I need to know at this stage is this: with the gun at a 20 degree incline what muzzle velocity would result in the ball traveling 50 metres?
 
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Gavinp said:
I am designing a tennis ball gun and am trying to work out the forces involved. It is essentially elastic powered but at this stage all I need to know at this stage is this: with the gun at a 20 degree incline what muzzle velocity would result in the ball traveling 50 metres?
Are you familiar with the SUVAT equations?
 
Sorry for delay, but no, however will google them after this reply, thanks for lead. My problem is this, I think I have a viable design for imparting a fair amount of velocity to the ball. It uses a dense coil of catapult elastic which is stretched using a geared crank. releasing the coil propels the ball via a bellows type arrangement which in effect is a large caliber pea-shooter. I want to estimate the range of the design as it stands to see if it will reach the minimum 50m range. To do this I guess I need to find muzzle velocity and then find the amount of energy needed to accelerate the ball to that velocity. Then I need to figure out the amount of energy that can be stored by the elastic. I am hoping the quantity of elastic in the design is sufficient to achieve the range. Any further hints welcome.
 
Gavinp said:
Sorry for delay, but no, however will google them after this reply, thanks for lead. My problem is this, I think I have a viable design for imparting a fair amount of velocity to the ball. It uses a dense coil of catapult elastic which is stretched using a geared crank. releasing the coil propels the ball via a bellows type arrangement which in effect is a large caliber pea-shooter. I want to estimate the range of the design as it stands to see if it will reach the minimum 50m range. To do this I guess I need to find muzzle velocity and then find the amount of energy needed to accelerate the ball to that velocity. Then I need to figure out the amount of energy that can be stored by the elastic. I am hoping the quantity of elastic in the design is sufficient to achieve the range. Any further hints welcome.
It looks like you have the right idea.
 

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