Good morning everyone, today I announce that my first physics project will be done with projectile motion.
How will I do that? Well, throwing a ball is boring after a while and can be very tiring after many throws. Guns are cool and the effects are more dramatic but a little too dangerous for this project. The 'cannon' in the picture is a happy alternative. It is a compressed air cannon made out of PVC that operates around 60 psi and is designed to shoot water balloons. My aerospace engineering friend(also in the picture holding the cannon in the yellow shirt) and I made the cannon out of boredom one weekend and had fun with it until it broke last spring. My plan is to rebuild it and improve on the basic design we had.
DISCLAIMER: Please do not try to duplicate this project at home! There is some danger associated with this project and also can be illegal in some areas of the country.So since that is out of the way, the question is how will I be keeping in line with my blog's original purpose of physics education and furthering science through a water balloon cannon? The answer is to use the scientific method to try and accomplish some goal.
Here are the steps as defined on
wikipedia's article on the scientific method1. Define the question
2. Gather information and resources (observe)
3. Form hypothesis
4. Perform experiment and collect data
5. Analyze data
6. Interpret data and draw conclusions that serve as a starting point for new hypothesis
7. Publish results
8. Retest (frequently done by other scientists)
The question for this project is:
Can a home-made compressed air cannon be made accurate enough to hit a 50-Gallon drum from 200 meters consistantly, ie 3+ shots in a row, with water balloons?
So now begins the second step, information gathering. The next post will be about basic projectile motion and other theories involved with this project.
Do you think this project is a reasonable one? Too easy? Too hard? Too dangerous? Feedback is always appriciated.
JPLittleton