Border Slingshot. Little did I know it, but apparently daring would-be immigrants have been slinging themselves across our borders by way of giant slingshots – or so the myth would have it. Is such a thing really possible? Someone would have to fly at least a couple hundred of yards through the air – that would surely take a large contraption, and could someone really survive such a flight?
As it turns out, while the team seems to be able to get the thrust they need through a lot of rubber tubing, the mechanism they chose is rather large, which means it would be tough to erect (and keep hidden), and the way they attached the “pocket” meant that anyone sitting in it would likely die as soon as the contraption was released – not to mention they would travel only a few feet (132 was the longest distance, I think, not nearly enough to get anyone across any border anywhere in the world without being seen).
When immigrants walk miles to get across the border, I’m thinking that this isn’t likely to be effective. The results from this episode seem to agree. Busted.
