Rating: 
Summary: Pleasing men of all ages!
Review: Being an avid potato gunner, I picked this book up at the local library, and after reading it over, I just had to to get it. The book will please everyone thats into building fun projects during the lazy summer days & will provide enjoyment for hours! The book goes into very good detail with each project & stresses safety as a key thing, which is good because the projects in this book can be somewhat dangeroeus ONLY if you don't follow instructions & use common sense. I recommended this book to anyone in need for a good project to work on or just for fun! Definitly on my top 10 list.
Rating:
Summary: Lots of fun
Review: Definitely fun projects for guys! If you feel like blowing something up, but still want to be safe, this is for you!
Rating:
Summary: Lots of fun
Review: Definitely fun projects for guys! If you feel like blowing something up, but still want to be safe, this is for you!
Rating:
Summary: A great book for kids of all ages.
Review: I bought this book for my boyfriend, and he practicaly sleeps with it. Not only does this book help you build the projects step-by-step, but it also provides the mechanics behind WHY it works in language easy enough for a ten year old to understand (with a little help on some of the vocabulary.) Would be valueable in science fairs and scouting projects as well.
Rating:
Summary: Fantastic read, fun science, great projects
Review: I loved this book. Whether you build these gadgets or not (and they are great gadgets, including the Potato Cannon, the Cincinnati Fire Kite, and the Hydro Pump Rocket), you will love the book. The author is funny and engaging, and he sprinkles entertaining bits of science and history into each chapter. I decided to build a few of the toys, and found that the instructions are excellent, clear, and simple, with great photos and diagrams.
Rating:
Summary: Backyard Ballistics Review
Review: My son and I built the potato cannon. We modified the plans to use 4 inch PVC instead of 3 inch. With the lantern sparker (from Walmart) and using Right Guard deodorant, you can launch a potato several hundred feet. Great book, fun reading.
Rating: 
Summary: To dangerous
Review: This book is a wonderful resource for those boys who have graduated from Nerf and waterguns- and for those of us that never will. What struck me most was the sheer variety of projects in this book- from little rockets powered by a match(!) to monster potato guns, this book has everything. I built a potato gun similar to the one in this book several years ago, and have been looking for projects in the same vein. With this book, I've found them. I especially love the fact that he uses a variety of power sources- the traditional hair spray of the potato gun, air pressure, even chemical combustion.One of the unique things about this book, as compared to other similar books, is the emphasis on both safety and history. Safety is important for obvious reasons. But most readers are enthusiasts about this sort of stuff, and the history lessons are exciting. My only complaint is that there is no room in this book for any sort of modification to the designs. For example, there are formulas that can be used to determine the maximum chamber size for a PVC-constructed potato gun, and with this, you can design your own potato gun in relative safety. Unfortunately, the author insists that you stick strictly to his designs. This appears to be an effort to ensure that all of the "toys" created with his book are safe, so that's only a minor complaint. Can't wait to start lobbing tennis balls!
Rating:
Summary: Parents, Dont be scared
Review: This is a great book. Just from skimming through it you can tell that a lot of thought and precaution went into it's construction. Parents may be scared seeing a book like this in the hands of their child, but don't be frightened. Most of the projects in here are pretty innocuous and saftey is paramount. The book and author STRESS proper precautions and advise saftey gear for any dangerous experiments. If you have a kid who has been playing with fire, been showing a disturbing interest in explosives or such, then buy them this book and do these projects with them! It will give kids a productive, educational and supervised outlet for these curiosities and fascinations and will give you a chance to teach them a bit about physics and further bond with them. Some young pyros grow into arsonists, others grow into firemen and physicists... you make the choice! Instead of punishing them and trying to curb their interest in such things, channel this energy into something positive. From the perspective of an adult or adolesent this book is still great. Fun projects and lots of information make for a fun read, and an even more fun summer project. Science teachers and the like will love this book as some of these projects could prove wonderful classroom demonstrations to aid in teaching and more importantly, in getting kids' attention and perhaps sparking an interest. Great book. more stuff like this might help the curb effects of all the negative stuff out there like the Anarchist's Cookbook and all those [explosive] websites. A big five stars!
Rating:
Summary: Interesting and great fun
Review: This is one of those ultimate guy books, fun for boys 8 to 80. It brought back memories of building similar devices in my youth, although I never built anything close to the diverse collection the author has brought together and describes in this interesting book. The book contains instructions and even troubleshooting suggestions for 12 different projects, ranging from a potato canon to Greek fire to the dry-cleaner bag balloon. I remember using a compound called Bangsite 40 years ago when I was a boy that was probably calcium carbide to build a primitive canon, and he was a similar one here. In addition to all the projects, the author does a fine job of providing a little education on the fine points of the history of many of these devices, and on some of the most important inventors in history. There are briref but very readable articles on Archimedes, Robert H. Goddard (the "father of rocketry"), Alfred Nobel, and others. A particularly interesting section is the one on the history of the catapult. The author details its use from 400 B.C. to the 15th century. For example, we learn that last successful use of the catapult (before it was replaced by canon) was at the Battle of Rhodes in 1480, and that 500 A.D. is the earliest recorded use of gravity-powered catapults or trebouchets in the Middle East. In 1191 Richard I (the "Lion-Hearted") participated in a hard-fought battle between the Franks and the Turks in which they battered each other with 300 catapults. And torsion engines were in widespread use in the Roman army by 50 A.D. In 1450, the canon supplanted the catapult throughout Europe and its long use in warfare came to an end. There are also interesting articles on The Roman Candle, the Medieval Crossbow, and Secret Weapons (such as missiles and rockets). At 170 pages in medium-size format, there are a lot of interesting historical facts and information in addition to all the material on the projects. This is a great idea for a book and I'm surprised no-one has ever done it before.
Rating: 
Summary: Bogus History, Stick to Ballistics
Review: This is the sort of book I'd ordinarily be eager to read. I got a chance to look through it at a local bookstore, however, and found it a great disappoinment. I didn't think most of the projects were all that interesting.
But what really clinched my decision not to buy this book was a chapter in which the author claimed that Belisarius, perhaps the most famous Byzantine general, invented both the cataphract and Greek Fire. What a crock! Greek Fire is said to have been invented by one Callinicus, a Syrian engineer, in the seventh century (673 A.D.). Belisarius lived over a century earlier,
500? - 565 A.D. Similarly, cataphracts were developed by the Parthians much earlier, possibly even in the last century B.C.,
depending upon your definition of what constitutes a cataphract.
Five minutes searching the Internet suffices to demonstrate this, but apparently the author couldn't be bothered. When an author demonstrates such truly monumental ignorance it makes me question everything else they have to say.
I'm also stunned at the other reviewers who complimented this book for its digressions into history when the author gets so much wrong.
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