The big experiment

This week the The Gadget Show is an all science special – The Gadget Show Big Experiment where we take on science. The big experiment in question is undertaken by Jon Bentley and Jason Bradbury when they are set a challenge to score a supersonic goal with a football. They begin by shooting a few penalties themselves and finding out that, even with their very best kick, they can only make the ball reach speeds of 82 miles per hour – miles off the 767 mph plus needed to break the sound barrier. They needed to think big. They both opt for different means to try and get their ball to go supersonic; Jon decides to stay with a ‘kick’, a massive single push or force to propel the ball forwards at high speed. Jason on the other hand decides that to achieve success he needs to strap a dirty great engine to the ball to accelerate it up and through the sound barrier. In pursuit of their goal Jon experiments with shotguns, air cannons, robots and finally explosives whilst Jason uses jet planes, dragsters, gravity and rockets to try and attain that sonic boom. Will either of them manage to score a goal with a ball that travels faster than the speed of sound?