Family beach time is important. Surfing, kayaking, swimming or just reading in the sand soaking up the sun. I try to make it at least twice a month and it's even better when friends and extended family can make it with us. The beach is my church.
One thing I like to do is throw little rocks I find on the beach into the ocean to see how far I can get them. If there are offshore boulders, I try to see if I can hit them in sequence. So it might take me three throws to hit that one, then 4 to hit the other, "Hey! Got that one on the first try!".
But there's a randomness to this that would make it tough to have a competition. We've all done the "See who can hit it first." game, but this idea makes it a bit more interesting. The players select an agreed upon first rock by hitting it with a laser pointer. This eliminates the confusion of trying to agree which rock is the target. Rocks all look pretty similar. So 5 or six rocks are chosen and agreed to by the players and the game starts.
First player throws, if he hits the rock he moves to the next rock for his next turn. If he misses he has to keep throwing till he hits that rock in the sequence. Then the next player and the next. First to hit all the rocks wins.-- doctorremulac3, Aug 09 2020 This sounds like an absolutely perfect application for a trebuchet ...-- 8th of 7, Aug 09 2020 When is a trebuchet NOT perfectly applicable?-- neutrinos_shadow, Aug 10 2020 // We've all done the "See who can hit it first." game
That was popular in my college days.-- tatterdemalion, Aug 10 2020 I think throwing rocks is in our DNA. It used to be how we selected what was for dinner. If you could hit it with a rock before it scurried into a hole or up a tree, that's what was on the menu that night.-- doctorremulac3, Aug 10 2020 // throwing rocks is in our DNA. //
Only since a troupe of proto-hominids spent too long sitting round the Black Monolith...
// When is a trebuchet NOT perfectly applicable? //
Dentistry seems to offer few, if any, opportunities.
Unless you're trying to drum up business, of course.-- 8th of 7, Aug 10 2020 That begs the question "Is superior throwing ability merely a side-effect of human body structure, or has said structure been tweaked by evolution to select for throwing ability ?"
Probably a bit of both.-- 8th of 7, Aug 10 2020 It's all natural selection. At caveman school, the schoolground bullies always selected the best throwers first; the lesser throwers got to be on the "target" team. This consistently reduced evolutionary opportunities for the underselected, unless offset by unexpected growth spurts or, as in my case, a great deal of solitary practice (and occasional vengeance).-- lurch, Aug 11 2020 //A chimp should be able to throw a 200 MPH fastball//
There's a few things working against that. Firstly, their arm span in absolute, if not relative terms is shorter. Second, throwing power, like punching originates in the legs. Longer legs add a lot of potential range of motion and power, esp. with a run-up, e.g. javelin & cricket. Thirdly, the perfect release requires outstanding trainable motor control.-- bs0u0155, Aug 11 2020 // throwing rocks is in our DNA. //
It's literally my families' motto: "venimus, vidimus, lapidavimus"
That's right - I had it translated into Latin.-- Loris, Aug 16 2020 random, halfbakery