Backyard Ballistics

As the editor-in-chief of Make magazine, one of my biggest challenges is finding contributors who are both great maker/inventors and great writers who can express themselves clearly. William Gurstelle is just such a person. In fact he's a living national treasure. I think he should get a MacArthur Genius grant.

Gurstelle's projects in Backyard Ballistics are a lot of fun, and maybe a little dangerous. He starts with the venerable potato cannon and moves onto the "hydro pump rocket," "pneumatic missile," "Cincinnati fire kite," "Greek fire and the catapult," "tennis ball mortar," "the flinger," "pnewton's petard," "dry cleaner bag balloon," "carbide cannon," and "ballistic pendulum." The projects are all do-able, unlike other project books I've seen, and Gurstelle's commentary is always helpful. Link