| "If time stops looping, there will be no big tears in the fabric of space-time and no way for us to get home. We must find a way to get ourselves and that machine through one of the rifts and back into Danville. Then we can push the button and blow up the machine." — Baljeet[src] |
The Buford Van Stomm Time Catapult is a catapult built by Phineas and Ferb with their friends' assistance as a pathway into the time flux.
History[]
Following a series of time loops, Candace notices the odd behavior of her parents eating cereal directly from the bowls. Questioning them on the concept of spoons, she discovers that they do not seem to know about the objects. Dismissing it as a joke, she proceeds to mimic them once more, only to learn their belief that "tiger" is a teenager slang. A third missing item is noted by Linda's usage of cargo shorts instead of Capri pants, finally dawning on the girl the anomalies of timeline manipulation.
Worried, Candace rushes to explain her situation to Phineas and Ferb, who soon get sucked by a portal. Inside a monochromatic town, the boys assess their circumstances in hopes of figuring out an exit. At the same time, their sister procures the gang as aid, though no one seems to understand her concern. While the brothers analyze the incoming items, the teenager induces Baljeet to scan the space-time fluctuations, having to do so twice due to a day reset. The kids manage to calculate the position of a rift, using it to stick a rope that pulls them into the dimension.
There, the kids meet up with the boys, quickly reminiscing about the missing objects. Examining the location, Baljeet deduces its existence outside the flow of time, recognizing the dissolution of the universe fabric. In a hurry, he lists the materials necessary for a counter device, which are found in a nearby machine, the source of the conundrum. With a plan in mind, the group constructs a catapult to launch themselves into a vortex, barely succeeding in that. Ultimately, the continuum is repaired by two independent efforts, saving the end of summer ("Last Day of Summer").
Design[]
The Buford Van Stomm Time Catapult is a sling with a teal-outlined gray clock dial base, a central dark gray gear, two gray triangular posts linked by a dark gray bar on top, a light gray lever-based gear placed in the left mast, a light gray wheel fixed in the right mast, a gray rope structure tied to a gray rectangular floor piece, a light gray anchor part at the tip, and a dark gray modified emptied fridge carrier.
Mechanics[]
The Buford Van Stomm Time Catapult functions on the principles of projectile mechanics. Upon adjusting the launch angle with the lever, the contraption can be released in the direction of the drafted target coordinates, propelling the riders via conversion of the elastic wiring's potential energy into motion.
Background Information[]
- This is the last overall Big Idea of the series' original run.
- Attempting to bring the issue of Phineas and Ferb's disappearance to Linda, Candace is stupefied to find out that her mother thinks both "Phineas and Ferb" and "Capri Pants" are boy bands.
- Encountering oranges in Nullville, Phineas directs the comment "orange you glad we have something to eat?" to Ferb, who does not respond. This is a pun on the word "aren't", a soundalike term to "orange".
- Not buying Candace's story, Buford advises her to stay out of the sun for a while, as the rays could have had an effect on her mind.
- According to Baljeet, the rifs are a destabilizations of the space-time continuum, which fracture into self-collapsing vortexes serving as entry points to the void. Moreover, with each loop, the fabric of the universe is continuously torn until nothing is left.
- To distract the tigers, Phineas and Ferb latch a makeshift ball of pants onto a lamppost.
- For the fluctuation calculations, Baljeet asks Candace the result of cos(84.7º), receiving the answer of seventeen. This is incorrect, since the cosine function for real numbers varies between -1 and 1; the actual result is 0.092.
- Entering Nullville, Isabella remembers Phineas, Baljeet acknowledges spoons, and Buford unsentimentally observes an orange.
- The materials needed for the hole contention device are einsteinium, tungsten wire, and micro-crystal plasma resistors.
- An initial miniature spoon model of the catapult is smashed by a herd of tigers once the kids are spotted.
- In a bird's-eye view of the clock face, the roman numerals for the hours are displayed in a mostly random order, with the majority of them repeating at least once. Later, the dial appears to be regular.
- Buford names the catapult after himself, proclaiming that he had won the naming rights in a fair way.
- Based on the values computed by Baljeet, the sling's set route is towards the point 34º10'15" N 0º15'0" W, equivalent to 34.17° N 0.25° W.
Appearances[]
- "Last Day of Summer" (First appearance)
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