Reserach and Background Info

Cannons are a large heavy gun usually mounted on a carriage, used for firing heavy projectiles. The word Cannon comes from the English word canon meaning large tube. They come in many shapes and sizes but they all have the same general functions.






Europe:
The ancestor to all cannons are the bamboo fire lances. Used in Europe made of iron forge and bell foundry, replacing those of bambo, leather, wood or stone it could throw any object. The first cannons were made out of stone and so were the cannon balls weighing up to 450 lb or more.

China:
China used the first cannons in there fight against the Mongols. On the Great Wall of China there are about 3.000 cannons.

English:
Bronze cannons are the best because the cannonballs would fit closely without packing. These were developed by the English and they also started to name them. Later they designed much better cannons that were easier to use and it took less people to operate them.




French:

The French developed carronades that enable a ship to have a heavier broadship because they were lihter and could be used on upper decks.








Asia:
The biggest connons constructed was the Indian Jaivana Cannon, largest wheel-mounted cannon and, the Dardanelles Gun which took 200 men to operate these two cannons.

Russians:
In 1586, the Russians waas devlop the Tsar Cannon, which is the largest howitzer ever made.

Present/ US Navy: The US Navy was able to develop and test succesfully. It is a new radical protoye weapon operated by the Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren. They are hoping they can scale it up to 64-mega levels, enabling them to fire heavier projectiles at targets 200 miles away.





Websites:

http://webster.com/dictionary/cannon

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_cannon

http://mysite.du.edu/~jcalvert/tech/cannon.htm#C

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/02/01/us_navy_railun_test_video_success/



Science:

Boyle's Law:
States that if the temperature remains the same, then the volume of a gas is inversely proportional to the pressure.

Equation:



Pressure & Volume:

The goal of this experiment is to propel the nerf ball as far as possible, so the pressure needs to be as high as possible. Using Boyle's law if pressure is at its highest then volume needs to be at its lowest.

http:www.sdm.scot.nhs.uk/gas_laws/

Hypothesis

To determine the pressure and volume of our cannon, we decided to make it long in order for the ball to travel a great distance.

Construction of Cannon

The Process of Building the Cannon

When deciding on how to build your rocket you need to think about the length of travel. In order for the Nerf Ball to travel a long distance. You should advise about the different ways to build the cannon then decide on one. There are many ways to build a cannon it could be long, short or even medium. My team decided to combine the two cans together. Thinking this was the best way for the ball to travel, we drew our idea oh how the cannon would look like in order to achieve the longest distance.

Materials:

• Two Tennis Ball cans
• 12 inches of Duck Tape
• Scissors
• Nerf Ball ( or some kind of ball)
  

Start Building:

• First trim the rim of the cap
• Leave only the circular top
• Rettach the circular top of the container using Duck Tape
• Cut out a hole the size of a #2 pencil's eraser near te bottom

Second Tube:

• Cut off the bottom of the second container and Duck Tape the second container onto the first. (side of cap)
• Remove the cap from the second container and put it in between the two cas and make a small hole to allow the pressure out and burst the ball out of the container.

Bottom:

• With the two containers properly connected, lay out the contraption on the ground.
• Then take the remaining "bottom" and Duck Tape it to the remaining cap at an upright position.
• Lastly Duck Tape the combination to the middle of the first container.

Thank You to:

Jennifer Allery for donating the pictures and to the group for building an awesome cannon.

Reflection # 1

In the experiment, tennis ball cannon, our goal was to maximize the pressure in order to blast the nerf ball out of the cans. The cannon we developed is a long tube with a stopper in the middle with a tiny hole to alow pressured of gas to come out and push the nerf ball out. I believe that our cannon will do a wonderful job of allowing pressure to push the ball out, to gain maximum distance. The team work extremely well on participation on thinking of ideas as well as building the cannon. Over all I think we did really well and I am looking forward to the results of the firing.

Firing of the Cannon "Champ"

Did your cannon have intelligent design based on pressure, volume and temperature? How so?








Which gas laws were being followed? How?








Did your observations follow what the gas laws teach us? What about your classmates?











Positive firing of the cannon, what do you attribute that success to? Would you do anything differently next time?

Reflection # 2

Today’s firing went extremely well we were able to determine that we have successfully succeeded in developing our cannon to be the best. Our cannon had the longest distance, at 21 feet and it even started a fire. The reason why ours turn on fire is because of the small volume and the loss of oxygen. That is why ours started too burned because of the reaction of the fire with the ethane. It was really cool to watch and record the information as others prepared there cannons to fire. I think my group did an excellent job at building and at firing the cannon. We have gone the distance and we have succeeded!