Things go splat at science museum

Ever wonder what would happen if you flung a watermelon a couple of hundred feet? So you know -- but want to see it happen anyway?

Melons are among the big hits, quite literally, today during the Science Museum of Virginia's first "You Bring It. We Fling It." festivities.

A medieval-inspired trebuchet -- tre-byoo-SHAY, as they say -- is set up this afternoon outside Track 7 behind the museum at 2500 W. Broad St.

There, creator and Virginia Military Institute professor Col. Grigg Mullin is loading and launching any manner of small items brought by members of the public who want to see them go splat. Bags of flour, kitty litter and soda bottles are among the pieces of ammunition.

The catapult-like machine -- similar in appearance, if not use, to weapons from Middle Ages -- launches items using a one-ton counterweight to create force and distance.

The watermelon, brought by 10-year-old James Davis from Alta Vista, passed a line of orange cones about 220 feet from the launch.

Launchings continue at 3 and 4 p.m. today. Museum admission is charged: $10 for adults and $9 for children and seniors. -- Zachary Reid