This is a bungee powered swing set The bungee cords are attached to each side of a seat with hand grips and a seatbelt to hold the swinger in. There are two vertical poles about 35 feet tall, to which the other end of cords are attached. There is sufficient clearance from the ground to seat to prevent 'bottoming' out on return. There is a pull bar on the back of the seat for two or more people pullers to pull the rider back and then release the rider with a rush of speed and g-force. This could even be a team sport to see who could sling the rider the highest. A more radical version could be made with taller poles and longer bungees, and the seat would be pulld back with a car with a release latch. But this obvioulsy is potentially more dangerous.
-- nov8r, May 19 2005

sky swing http://www.skylines...ormal/skyswing1.jpg
Couldnt finf any better images, but basically you het in a cage that has a two bungee cords attached to it, and the bungee cords are each attached to tall (roughly 60m) towers, it then releases you (and the cage) and sends you around 120 metres into the air. I assume you were talking about this, but on a much smaller scale. [andrew1, Oct 04 2005]

Should it be possible to calculate how high a rider could go, if pulled back by 2 persons of equal weight?

I've seen similar at a motor show, where at the bottom was a trampoline.
-- Ling, May 19 2005


No bar on top pa've, but i would pad the poles for safety. You would not go straight up anyway.
-- nov8r, May 19 2005


Yes bubba i thought of doing the human sling shot with the person being shot into a lake. Come to think of it, on my radical version plus the slingshot, would this be a way to use a parachute without a need for a plane? And twice the rush!!! Parasling --the new sport!!!!!
-- nov8r, May 19 2005


Ling, Two persons of equal weight will not be of equal strength as two others on a team, think of tug o war. But to answer your question you could calculate pretty close as weight will be more important i would think,since their weight will be pulling down as well as back. If pulled straight down then the answer would be yes.
-- nov8r, May 19 2005


You'd need to know the elasticity of the sling and the maximum force that they can pull back with. The latter can be estimated, the former has to be specified. Alternatively, you could set some maximum desirable height, and work out a suitably elastic sling.
-- Detly, May 19 2005


Are “bouncy swings” still around? Or were they deemed unsafe and removed from the market because, well, this is what we used them for.
-- Shz, May 19 2005


If two people pulled the rider down, I think you could assume some of the variables:

The distance the rider is pulled down will be about 2m (upper reach limit).

The maximum pulling down force will equal the body weight of the two people.

The elasticity could be assumed to be perfect, so the pulling down force is constant with height, and energy is completely returned.

If each person is m Kg,

Work done downwards: approx m x 9.81 x 2metres
Work done upwards: same, but m is half.

The rider cancels out the downwards pull part of the ride with the return to the rest point, so the work done upwards applies to above the rest point.

Therefore the rider will go up about 4m above the rest point (or 6m above the lowest point).
-- Ling, May 20 2005


baked, see link
-- andrew1, Oct 04 2005


Ha, UB, Splat!
-- Ling, Oct 04 2005



random, halfbakery