We Tested Dangerous Catapult Launches!

Added: 2026-05-30

[00:00:00]jumping over a trike onto a building, landing on a target while driving, and hitting a four square meter target in midair. What do these stunts have in common? They are all done with our human cannon that we've built ourselves. And all of them are very well calculated.

[00:00:18]We'll be going through six different stunts and explaining how we do most important calculations, starting with the highest point of the jump.

[00:00:26]So, we're back at our treehouse and today we set our cannon almost vertical to jump on it.

[00:00:33]>> In order to safely do that, we must ensure that the highest point of the flight is higher than the platform by at least 2 m.

[00:00:40]>> Progression is going to be dummy first and see where the dummy lands and it's time that we do it. Guys are super confident in their calculations.

[00:00:51]>> So, how did we calculate the highest point jumping out of a cannon? behaves the same as an angled throw. The only information we need are the angle and the axis speed from the cannon.

[00:01:03]Combining these two, we can divide the speed into x and y component. For now, we'll only need the vertical y component because we need to calculate the height.

[00:01:12]First, we must divide y speed with gravitational force, which gives us time of traveling upwards. We then plug that time into prefall equation and we get the height. But this is the height from the top of the cannon. So we must also add the cannon height in order to get the highest point of the flight and that must be higher than the platform. Now let's test the calculations with our dummy. We are predicting for the tire to go through the hole. Because of one of our previous projects, we have a trapoor on our treehouse which led to Max making a very bold prediction. My prediction is that the dummy tire is going to fly right through that hole. I I'm going to cover the expenses for the board.

[00:01:56]>> I'm willing to replace all the all the wood.

[00:01:59]>> Three, two, ONE.

[00:02:09]>> We got the timing.

[00:02:13]That was beautiful. Oh, that was that was beautiful. Next step is first human test.

[00:02:19]>> I'm ready to take myself to the next level. That one.

[00:02:32]>> Oh [ __ ] >> Even though the jump looks small, I can assure you that jumping onto a 7 m high platform is not easy. But what's even more scary is jumping onto a building almost twice this high.

[00:02:47]So this is our next challenge. It's a new location, our office building. One thing that there's a major challenge here is we're not going to be shooting weights because we don't want to destroy the building. First launch is going to be a human. We are doing this because you guys said so and we read all of your comments. So if you have any good ideas where else should we jump with a cannon >> or bad ideas for that matter.

[00:03:14]>> Yes. Just so it's basically your responsibility that we're doing that.

[00:03:18]>> This was actually suggested by quite a lot of you guys. If you have any other good ideas, write them down. We'll most likely see it.

[00:03:26]>> Now, we're going to go up on the roof and try to predict where exactly Yanni's going to land.

[00:03:30]>> We are so convinced that we can predict the trajectory really accurately that Max will really precisely mark the spot where Yanni should land. Your feet are going to be like here somewhere when you're above this wall.

[00:03:46]>> Just to be safe, Yanni also double check the calculations.

[00:03:49]>> Yeah, my my finger method kind of approves the the math and science. Yeah, it's time to launch myself on that building. [ __ ] >> Oh, what the [ __ ] >> If you paid enough attention, you've noticed that Yanni landed right on the mark. But how did we calculate that? Let me explain it on a way bigger jump with a much smaller margin for error.

[00:04:24]That's right. We made our way into an FMX show. But there's a catch. We have to jump at least 30 m.

[00:04:32]>> We are doing crazy experiment. Gap is committed to use their airbag.

[00:04:38]>> Now the catch here is that the landing airbag is inclined. It's really good for the riders because they can easily ride out of it. But for us, compared to a regular flat airbag, it gives us a much lesser landing zone with a smaller room for error.

[00:04:53]>> I think Gap is super confident in in his calculations. So I don't doubt it. I mean, look at him. He's just numbers, numbers, numbers.

[00:05:02]>> Gap, how are the numbers?

[00:05:04]>> Uh, still working on them and we're we're on a tight schedule. So, >> Gab didn't have time to explain, so I'll do it instead of it. Now, we have to figure out the exact distance of the flight. Distance equation is pretty simple. It's just speed multiplied by time. As far as the speed goes, instead of using the y component like earlier, now we need the x component. That covers the speed. Now for time, it consists out of time traveling upwards and downwards.

[00:05:34]Before we've learned how to calculate the time of traveling upwards and the maximum height, which will be super useful. We only need to calculate the time of traveling down, which we do with repurposing the freefall equation to extract time. Now that we know the maximum height, it's easy peasy. We just insert the numbers.

[00:05:54]We add both times together and put it into the basic distance equation and we get our desired distance.

[00:06:01]>> I'm going to be clearing like 100 ft which is like super decent for for this kind of show. So Gab is going to break the 100 ft distance which is insane and it's happening now.

[00:06:16]>> At the beginning we wanted to just match the rider's distance but now we decided to go a tiny bit further. Margin for error is getting slimmer. The airbag is getting small.

[00:06:40]>> Now that we've mastered precision, we'll move on to the next live show where we'll be moving with a carnival through a city.

[00:06:49]So, the thing with a carnival is it's a moving event, which means we'll be moving too, including our landing. But how will that work? Well, theory says that an object in motion stays in motion. So, if the truck, me, and the landing are all moving at 30 km an hour, and I eject myself in the opposite direction with 20 km an hour, it is supposedly the same as if everything was standing still. But is it? So, we've piled up the mats onto a wagon, did the calculations, and tested it while still, you know, just in case.

[00:07:26]>> Good darling.

[00:07:28]>> But here, we'll face another issue.

[00:07:30]>> Next up is we need to figure out if this thing is stable while driving.

[00:07:36]>> Sha came up with an interesting solution where he'd control the steering rod using his feet.

[00:07:41]>> That's the actually the steering wheel.

[00:07:44]So with the slides, it's actually like on a bob sled.

[00:07:50]So that's the steering mechanism for Hani to land safely. We're going to have to decide before the jump if we are aligned with the wagon or not. We've done a couple of test laps and steering seem quite fine.

[00:08:03]>> Everything is like on the trailer.

[00:08:05]Everything moves. Everything shakes. I think the the steering is uh relatively under control. SH is like the Dune character like riding a riding a sand worm.

[00:08:24]>> And on that note, we've decided to just go for it.

[00:08:32]>> So, everybody's going to be on the trailer and all together started moving.

[00:08:36]Let's see how it goes down.

[00:08:38]>> Safety pin out.

[00:08:42]2 3.

[00:08:51]>> Luckily, it still is true that an object in motion stays in motion. So, we've decided to show it in front of the whole city, and I'm pretty sure they liked it.

[00:09:02]Now, what if in the equation we add another moving object? Today, we started with preparations to jump with our human cannon over trikes. uh and safely land on an airvac. And we're going to switch between weight and me adjusting the distance until we reach 90 ft of distance and about 30 ft of height to have enough clearance. 90 ft or 30 m is basically the width of the entire runway if we want to clear it. But that's not a problem. We know we can jump far and high enough to clear the trike with enough safety margin. The important thing if you want the trike to fly right on the gap is the timing. We need to know the distance from trike when we have to trigger. For that, we need to know two information. First is Gap's time of travel until the highest point of the flight, which is when he's the highest off the ground, making it the safest. But we already know how to do that, right? Next is the track speed, which will be about 80 km an hour or 22 m/s. Similar to before, if we multiply the velocity with the time of travel, we get the distance from the trike at which Kilme get when he's in the highest point of the flight. Now, there only remains a single question. Who do we trust enough to pilot the trike?

[00:10:21]>> My dad is doing a test fly over.

[00:10:23]>> That's right. The pilot of the trike is Gap's father. He's been flying a trike his whole life. And ever since we started doing our DD squad stuff, they've always wanted to do this done together. And today is finally the day.

[00:10:41]He really struggled to struggle to go as low as possible. He was like inches off the ground. Do you feel good about this?

[00:10:49]>> Oh yeah. As long as he doesn't crash.

[00:10:53]>> We were as prepared as we possibly could have been.

[00:10:58]Okay.

[00:11:03]Okay.

[00:11:21]Oh, [ __ ] He comes back. He's coming back. SAFETY PIN OUT. SAFETY PIN OUT.

[00:11:35]Ste 3.

[00:11:49][ __ ] This was one of the coolest stunts we've ever done. But it's not over yet as we still have our most challenging bit ahead of us. Aiming for a four square m target in midair.

[00:12:09]>> Jumping into a Velcro, it's by itself already pretty gnarly.

[00:12:15]>> So beforehand, we made a Velcro suit and a Velcro target that we tested to make sure you can stick to it. While testing that, we also learned that you need just enough speed in order to stick to it.

[00:12:26]And if you have too much speed, you'll just fall off. That means that we have to match the queue position to the highest point of the flight because in that point, you only have X speed while Y component of the speed becomes zero.

[00:12:40]For that, we need to know the highest point of the flight and its distance from the end of the cannon. If we remember, for the highest point, we need to know the Y speed. Use it to calculate the time of traveling up. Use that to get the height from the cannon and add the height of the cannon. That's all there is to the highest point. Now, for the distance of the highest point, we only need to know the X speed and time of traveling up, which we know both. And if we multiply those, we get the distance. Pretty simple, huh?

[00:13:11]>> And now it's time to do the test jump.

[00:13:14]See where the top point of trajectory is. We know where the peak of trajectory is, but it's kind of hard to measure it in real life. So, first we'll do a flyby where we'll set the cube offaxis to see if Yiani would hit it. And if it looks good, we'll just go for a real jump.

[00:13:31]>> Now, it's the time to test it out.

[00:13:32]Cannon is in place. Uh, we have the the target hanging and it's time for me to go in the air and test the trajectory.

[00:13:41]>> 3 2 1 We did two flyby tests with one the cube being a bit too low.

[00:13:51]>> It looked like that we have to put the the cube a bit higher >> and with the other a bit too high.

[00:13:57]>> I'll go a little bit down. A little bit down. So except for the target being a bit too high this time. I think we're more or less ready for the final test.

[00:14:06]It's up to Yani.

[00:14:07]>> We did two flyby test and everything seems solid. Now it's time to suit up and try to stick to the wall. Let's do that.

[00:14:19]>> I think this is the most ridiculous epic walk up I ever filmed.

[00:14:24]>> I feel like a cookie from Shrek.

[00:14:27]That's how I feel.

[00:14:29]>> Ready? You don't want to delay it anymore?

[00:14:30]>> Yeah, that's the worst. Waiting before the stunt. You want to get over there's nothing much more to do just than just to stick it. So Yanni settled up with full faith in our calculations that have proved to be accurate so far.

[00:14:46]>> Four 3 2 1.

[00:15:00]So we proved our point. Physics can actually be fun. We do a lot more stuff like this, so check out our other videos and give us a subscribe.