This Blaster Fires Cards At 200 Km/H, How Cool Is That!

Having certain knowledge in engineering as well as some building skills can be not only helpful but also fun because you can create new things from scratch with your own ideas. And YouTuber The Practical Engineer is good at this, his creations are surely cool and impressive, but let’s see if his new item is really practical this time.

In a video posted on February 9, he created a handheld blaster that hurls playing cards speeds of over 200 kilometers per hour. The video shows details about how he built the device, and there is further information about the engineering and design of this machine on his website. The blaster, powered by a battery, includes a pair of motors, one of which grabs a card from an inserted stack, while the other helps launch the card by spinning at speeds of up to 25,000 revolutions/minute. The second motor works with a pair of high-speed bearings, which fire the card using a spinning motion for improving its speed as well as stability in the air.

This machine was made with inspiration from a similar creation by former NASA engineer Mark Rober. However, this version has a more compact design and seems to be a little more terrifying. The hitting speeds of the card were recorded with a high-speed camera, showing that they reached 200 km/h velocity while coming to their target. On his website, however, The Practical Engineer points out that it’s the performance when the blaster runs at about 60% of its full power and seems to be the limit for safe operation.

The blaster can probably launch cards even faster and from a longer distance, but that would make it a too dangerous device to hold by a random person.

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