April 21, 2006

Water Bottle Jet Pack [Google Video]
posted by six.oh.six 18 years ago
  • I think the Mythbusters tried to replicate this and couldn't. At least, their human guinea pig wasn't willing to break her neck trying.
  • He's on a wire.
  • "Best of the web"?
  • "More bananas and less flinging"?
  • He is spinning around yet progressing on a remarkably straight line. Just like balloons do in my living room. Wire.
  • The initial propulsion would be the greatest. When we had the same type of water rocket toys when we were kids, they would flip around half the time on their more or less straight trajectory upwards. I'm weak-willed enough to believe it, in spite of how much it looks like wire.
  • Okay, I'll try again. Look where the thrust vector is pointing and compare to where the center of gravity is. He launches at 33 seconds into the frame, and in under a second the video shows him pointing into the water with the thrust pointing into the water and the "pilot" just hanging there. But some how he can realign himself and continue upware and in a straight line? Nah.
  • I'm not sure. It looks to me that all the thrust might be expended in that first half second. That might solve the control problem. Flight time =~ 5 sec. Horizontal distance =~ 50 m Max. height =~ 7 m Initial height =~ 3 m With a "cannon" model, though, he'd need a lot more vertical momentum to stay in the air that long. Plus he'd have to be travelling at 27 m/s (60 mph) and he'd hit a height of 30 m. So, yeah, wire.
  • I too saw the Mythbusters' efforts, and can quite safely say that this is a wire.
  • But the will is weak, my friends. In other news, I took a personality test today! Apparently, I am full of thetans!
  • So you got that going for you.
  • I saw the Mythbusters episode, too, and while I think this guy is on a wire or something, I'm glad to see the link because they wouldn't (or couldn't) show this on MB.