Any video that opens with Rick Smith Jr., the world’s top card thrower, slicing a blueberry in two with a playing card immediately has my full attention. But to go on to try and beat him by building a card-throwing SMG? Well, you can’t help but want to know how things turn out.
With enough practise, it’s possible for a human to flick a playing card so fast and accurately, you can slice through all sorts of delicious produce. Now, you’d think that a machine purpose-built to spit out cards and replicate this feat would be better.
Not so much, as former NASA and JPL engineer Mark Rober found out when he tried to build one, which you’ll see in the clip. Not only could it not slice through an olive — something Smith Jr. did with little effort — it couldn’t even hit a watermelon half.
Yeah, so no need to worry about the card-gun-wielding robot apocalypse just yet.
[YouTube, via The Awesomer]