Potato cannons first inspired my love of physics. In high school I was amazed when I discovered that I could fire one vertically, time how long it took for the

Potato cannons first inspired my love of physics. In high school I was amazed when I discovered that I could fire one vertically, time how long it took for the potato to hit the ground, and then mathematically reconstruct both the potato's exit velocity and the maximum height it reached. It felt like magic. I ended up performing a science fair project on the effect of the potato cannon barrel length on the potato's max speed and height. (My experiments also led to a short encounter with the police, but that's a different story.)