This is one of those things that may have little practical application, but it still rattles around in my brain sometimes.
How fast can a rubber speargun band contract, and what (if any) limitations would that place on gun design?
My thinking goes like this. Suppose I am pushing my kid in a wagon. No matter how big or strong I am, (or how big or small my kid) that wagon will never go faster than I can run. I can get three friends to help me, and we might get the wagon up to to speed sooner, but it will still never go faster than we can run. All the extra strength of my three friends is wasted, because the limit is how fast we can run.
So I was wondering. There must be some maximum speed at which a speargun band can contract. So at some point, adding more bands to a gun might not increase the shaft speed at all. Or, moving in the opposite direction, using a lighter shaft might not result in any additional speed.
Anyone ever seen info on how fast a rubber band can contract?