Physics major David Long’s (left) notebook is filled with intricate pencil sketches of his unusual Capstone project: a ping-pong-ball launcher.

“How often do you get to do something like this,” Long asks. “Most people are writing reports, and I’m making a ping-pong ball cannon.”

He is building the launcher with a 10-foot tube of PVC pipe. A special pump, bought with the help of a Capstone research grant from the College, will suck the air out of the tube, making it airtight. When air rushes back into one end, its pressure will shoot the ping-pong ball at speeds between 300-600 miles per hour.

“You think about a ping-pong ball, something small and breakable in your hand, and you can get it going so fast it can poke through a Coke can or an envelope and not break at all,” Long says.

He plans to predict how fast the ball will go, based on the pressure. Long will measure the ball’s velocity with lasers.

This project is a big change from the History major Long planned to be when he came to McDaniel. He took his first Physics class during his sophomore year and was hooked.

“Physics explains the reason you have rainbows, the reason things do what they do,” he says. “It’s math with a purpose and with interesting topics behind it.”

Long plans to attend graduate school after taking a year to coach his favorite sport, soccer. As for ping-pong, he has an embarrassing admission.

“I’m terrible at the game. I lose every time I play.”