For the water balloon launcher specifically, the KISS principle boils down to one thing: slingshots. Other designs all involve a stopping mechanism or a track of some kind. Although there is nothing wrong with these ideas, they tend to lead to breakage, and they are harder to build. They certainly look more impressive, but the bottom line is that they do not perform as well.
Another impportant thing to remeber is that nothing is perfect. The surgical tubing, for instance, is not a perfect spring. In calculating how much tubing is necessary for a launcher, it is important to keep in mind that its stretchiness is slowly lost. This is especially important to remember when extensive testing is done to find the various ranges of the launcher. Since things are not perfect, it is important to always come prepared. For instance, had my group came as prepared as we had planned, we would have brought some extra clamps to elongate the part of the surgical tubing outside the launcher. That would have associated a greater potential to the same stretch within the launcher.
Finally, anybody participating in a balloon launch contest should reinforce his balloons or be certain to buy good quality ones. A major problem Ya Gotta Have One ran into was balloons popping in flight and upon launch. There are several brands of balloons made specifically for balloon launchers. They and doubled balloons all seemed to do pretty well at the competition.
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