Backyard Ballistics: Build Potato Cannons, Paper Match Rockets, Cincinnati Fire Kites, Tennis Ball Mortars, and More Dynamite Devices,   ISBN:9781556523755

Customer Rating: 

This book is all that it promises and more. It is a terrifically fun way to learn science! All instructions are there, hints for the most fun, safety, etc. The projects are definitely dangerous alone, so adult assistance is required for anyone under 18 who wants to tackle these projects. However, they are a terrific bonding event for parents and children! We home school and this was hands-on science at its best--lots of fun, unlike labs where you just watch pill bugs who (for whatever reason) don't behave the way they are "supposed to" for the experiment, etc. These projects produce results and better yet teach at the same time. Kids (and parents) will find reasons to learn more about chemistry, physics, etc. And, it will be fun as the research will again have hands-on applications. The projects make you feel like you are Benjamin Franklin in the thunderstorm with your kite and key...(for a correction on that historical event, check out a history book)!

Customer Rating: 

The book itself is great, and it did show up in a timely fashion. The book was described as being in new condition, however, upon receipt, pages were slightly bent and I found a chocolate wrapper in the pages... could not give it as a gift as intended.

Customer Rating: 

When we were kids we learned how to build a lot of this stuff by studying -- get this -- a police display of banned and home-made weapons at a mall!

Anything we didn't understand, we just asked the cop at the display.

Genius!

Customer Rating: 

Sweet Book!
The detail oriented historian will probably have some issues with some of the particulars in his history, but anyone buying this book for the history lessons is shopping in the wrong section of the bookstore.
Great basic engineering, great explanations, great fun projects.
Bored college students should not get this book unless they have a good working relationship with their Dean of Students.

Customer Rating: 

I bought this book for my 11 year old son, thinking he would be able to put some of these together himself. These are clearly devices that rquire supervision not only for firing, but also for constructing. Very cool, but not for independent assembly.