PUNKIN CHUNKIN

Pumpkins. Good for carving, making pies, baking seeds and a flurry of other fall favorites. But a catapulting pumpkin competition? Now that's an unusual use for this orange gourd-like squash! For 25 years, the World Championship Punkin Chunkin competition has been launching pumpkins high into the skies above Delaware. Science Channel will be there again this year to catch every far-flingin, high-flyin moment.

Punkin Chunkin covers every angle of the intense competition from growing special, aerodynamic pumpkins and determining the perfect pumpkin's mass to the mechanics of the air cannon and the physics of catapults. It may look simple at first. Take a pumpkin, load it up and let 'er rip, right? Wrong! Each machine has to be calibrated to the weight of the pumpkin before launch. One big miscalculation and months of hard work can disappear in a flash.