THE REAL MEN OF GENIUS
Combustion Cannon!!!!
Amount of fuel vs Distance of projectile shot
Spencer Olson, Robert Kennedy, Spencer Haag
Period 3A
B-ground
- Statement -
Hypothesis - Procedure -
Results and Data -
Conclusion -
Bibliography - Related Sites
- Return To Research
Background Information top
The first cannons were created by the Chinese, when they filled bamboo tubes with saltpeter, sulfur and charcoal. The Chinese learned that these could be made into weapons by inserting a stone or metal ball into a barrel. The first dated cannon was in 1332 in China. The cannon today is much more sophisticated. They are capable of being used on tanks, ships, or planes. Also, the cannons today can be operated by one man instead of many. The cannon works by putting fuel in a chamber, igniting it and that creates a large force of combustion that shoots the projectile in the barrel.
Statement of the Problem top
The purpose of this experiment is to find a relationship between the amount of fuel used and the distance the projectile will travel.
Hypothesis top
I believe that the more fuel that we use, the bigger the explosion, and thus, the farther the projectile will go. With a bigger explosion, there will be a bigger force on the projectile, which will increase the velocity. We will measure the distance in yards and convert it into meters. The amount of fuel will be measured in seconds of spray.
Procedure top
For our projectiles, we used red potatoes that we weighed so we could use ones that were the same size and weight. We set up our cannon on a lawn chair at a 45-degree angle, that we measured with a protractor. Our method for shooting it was taking the potato and shoving into the barrel with a ramrod (AKA a lacrosse stick), plugging the end with a rag, spraying the hairspray into the chamber, then capping it and flicking the flint igniter it ignite the hairspray.
Results and Data top
| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | AVERAGE: | ||
| SPRAY | |||||||
| 4s | 73.152 | 91.44 | 105.156 | 82.296 | 96.012 | 89.6112 | |
| 5s | 82.296 | 77.724 | 109.728 | 109.728 | 91.44 | 94.1832 | |
| 6s | 36.576 | 73.152 | 118.872 | 105.156 | 100.584 | 86.868 | |
| 7s | 128.016 | 137.16 | 109.728 | 91.44 | 118.872 | 117.0432 |
Data File (text)
| Excel
Conclusion top
In conclusion, we found that in general, the more spray used, the farther the potato was shot. However, in some cases, we found some anomalies where basically less was more. We also stopped recording past seven seconds of spray because once we went higher, the distance hit a plateau. There could have been some errors though. For instance, there was wind, the potatoes didn’t way the exact same just really close, and that some hairspray could have leaked. Finally, we concluded that our hypothesis was correct, that more hairspray caused the potato the fly farther.
Bibliography top
http://www.cannon-mania.com/history.htm
http://www.sfusd.k12.ca.us/schwww/sch618/War/Cannon.html
http://mysite.du.edu/~jcalvert/tech/cannon.htm
http://www.geocities.com/Yosemite/Rapids/1489/improve.html
http://www.mshamash.com/spud/spudgun1.html