What do you do with your empty plastic bottles? Do you recycle them? Do you turn them into adorable craft projects? Do you shoot them across the yard using a homemade bazooka? That is exactly what William Gurstelle from Popular Science did when he built his plastic bottle bazooka.
According to Gurstelle: "My design for a bazooka looks a lot like the real McCoy. For the barrel, I used a 3-inch-diameter heavy paper tube I found at a local packaging store. My projectile is an uncapped plastic beverage bottle, filled with a mixture of air and evaporated alcohol. I position it in the tube so that the bazooka’s trigger—a modified grill igniter—fits inside the bottle. When a spark sets off the alcohol, it forms a hot gas that gushes out of the bottle’s mouth, propelling the plastic out of the tube. My bottle bazooka sports a distinctive and tough look. Even better, it packs a heckuva wallop."
