A “Pumpkin Chucker” design for the annual Punpkin Chunkin competition held near Millsboro, Delaware every fall (first week of November) uses a pneumatic launcher (air cannon) to throw its pumpkin. It is important to know if your “ammunition”, the pumpkin, can withstand the force exerted on it during launch (otherwise it comes out smashed and is called pumpkin pie). To test the pumpkins, crew drops the pumpkin onto a solid wood board placed on the deck of their truck. The problem is that they might damage the pumpkin by doing this.
So after many tries, they find that if the pumpkin bounces 1 foot off the board after dropping from 5 feet up, without obvious damage, the pumpkin is resilient enough to be used as ammo. What is the coefficient of restitution needed for good ammo?