300-pound rubber band ball headlines Smash

What happens when a 300-pound ball is dropped from 50 feet in the air? A certain amount of destruction, naturally, but also some science-based learning.

This is the third year for the Mid-America Science Museum’s Summer Science Smash and the second year for the big rubber band ball drop on the museum grounds.

“Summer Smash started off as our end-of-summer hurrah-type event,” says Jim Miller, director of marketing for the museum. “It was a messy day of science fun. Just having some outdoor play and enjoying some science.”

Then, they got an idea, thanks to their presenting sponsor, Alliance Rubber Co. The Hot Springs-based company is the largest rubber band company in North America and they sell rubber band ball starter kits. Using the kits and donated bands, the museum started building its own ball a couple of years ago.

“We’ve grown it to such an enormous size that we have to roll it around to get it places,” Miller says.

As with last year, for several Saturdays leading up to the event, they’ve brought the ball out in the

open so that visitors can see volunteers adding rubber bands and interact with it by rolling it around or guessing its weight. It now weighs around 300 pounds.

It isn’t and likely won’t ever be big enough to challenge the world’s largest rubber band ball — which weighs over a ton — but the museum is hoping to have it up to about 500 pounds in the next year or two.

Last year, it tried to think of what the museum could do to get people’s attention and teach them about the science of rubber, gravity and impact.

So, the museum smashed a car by dropping the ball 50 feet off a boom loaned by United Rental Co.

“We didn’t really know what was going to happen to the ball last year,” Miller says. “We thought we might lose some bands. But rubber band balls are pretty resilient.”

The ball survived to drop again, so the popularity of the event and the ball drop encouraged them to go for a repeat performance this year.

At 3 p.m., the ball will once again plummet down onto a car and, new this year, a refrigerator.

The drop will, Miller promises, be perfectly safe for spectators. And it’s anticipated to draw a crowd of around 1,000 people of all ages.

“We actually had some adults that tailgated last year and just hung out waiting for the drop.”

The ball drop won’t be all. There will be a lead-up minishow with a museum educator, who will use giant mallets and items like watermelons to talk about force and kinetic energy.

There will also be “messy science activities” like walking on eggs, a tech take-apart and a ball obstacle course challenge.

Last year, a rubber band ball enthusiast, Josh Hudson, drove from Tennessee with some of his rubber band ball collection to exhibit, and he could make a return appearance.

“It’s artwork, really,” Miller says. “That’s part of what’s so cool. You can express yourself using rubber bands. You can do science activities with rubber bands.”

People are also welcome to tour the museum’s indoor exhibits, including the soonto-depart temporary exhibits “Magnificent Me” and an exhibit on Apollo 15.

“It’s all about hands-on science,” he says. “We’ll just have fun enjoying ourselves and getting families to enjoy themselves. Everybody’s gone back to school, and this is our way to blow off some steam for those who have just started back.”