The principles at work here are pretty simple. Compressed air, a pumpkin, and a nice long tube. There are related “pumpkin cannon” videos, but this appears to be very much the biggest. It didn’t escape my attention that the two giant canisters and huge pumpkin shaft are suggestive in some way. But then again, sometimes a huge cannon in the country is just a huge phallus cannon in the country.
My favorite part is when the passer-by asks “what’s downrange?” — which is the first question that came into mind for me. These pumpkins, travelling around a mile with initial velocity of 600MPH (I think they’re exaggerating, but still), would instantly kill anything they hit. They joke about firing bowling balls, ha ha, but you know they’ve tried, and one of those going that speed would probably go through a car door. Notice there really isn’t an answer to this question.
So, in conclusion: very cool, but profoundly irresponsible. It’s the American way!
[via Reddit]