BC of marshmallow ?

[Canvsbk]

My daughter teaches high school physics and we were haveing a discussion about ballistics...
One of the labs they do in class involves a marshmellow launcher. The lab requires the student to predetermine the flight of the projectile. They actually do have some kind of photo sensor to determine velocity...
Any body got any idea about the ballistic co efficient of a marsh mellow?
Thanks

 

[KRP]

Miniature, standard, or the new big ones...flavored? Your daughter is a physics teacher, seems it would be an easy question for her.

 

[Canvsbk]

No flavors..
Miniature in size. They can calculate the force from a picket fence falling but BC isn't some thing they normally discuss...kinda like the term "launcher". In my day we called those something else.

 

[Kevin Thomas]

canvasbk,

No, not with any sort of relevance. To begin, you'd need a "standard" marshmellow to form the basis of that table. Not being facetious here, but there's simply too much difference between a marshmellow and G1 projectile (or any other "Standard" projectile) for there to be any sort of comparison between the two.

 

[submoa]

not really it would be like a really light wadcutter pistol bullet right ???

 

[laserflat]

Most HS physics doesnt take air resistance into account, only gravity. You sure they are taking into account the atmosphere.

 

[feelinducky]

What about the sectional density?

 

[7 loader]

Tell me how this turned out. I bet they get FUBARed. That would be fun. tell her good Luck.

 

[Canvsbk]

I will report back for sure. Apperantly there are variables involved here that we just don't see in the field.....
Some kids are freezing their marshmellows - somehow there's carbon paper involved - everybody wants the tuba player from the band on their team to generate maximum muzzle velocity - ....
And yes, up to this point they haven't calculated for any kind of atmospheric resistance, but now that we have guesstimated a BC of .050 we'll see who the smart ones are....

 

[green 788]

You might ask this guy...