Research

Former Knowledge
Boyle's Law
According to Boyle's Law, pressure is inversely related to the volume of a gas, but at a constant Kelvin Temperature(Celsius + 273).In addition to this (p1)(v1)=(p2)(v2), and as pressure gains the volume drops, or as the volume gains the pressure drops.(p1^), (v1 v)(v1 ^), (p1 v)

P=Pressure in Atmospheric Pressure(atm)
V=Volume in Liters(L)
T=Temperature in Kelvins(K or 273 +Celsius)

Charles Law
According to Charles' Law it says the volume of a fixed mass of gas is directly proportional to it's kelvin temperature if the pressure is kept constant.
Therefore V1/T1=V2/T2, so as the V1 or volume rises the temperature or T1 rises also, or vice-versa.Gay-Lussacs'sGay-Lussacs's law says that pressure of a gas is directly proportional to the kelvin temperature if the volume remains constant.
So P1/T1=P2/T2, so the relationship is directly proportional and just like Charles law the if the pressure or P1 rises the temperature T1 also rises or vice-versa.

Combined Gas Law
The combined gas law describes the relationship among the pressure, temperature, and volume of an enclosed gas, but this only works if the gas is constant. So P1V1/T1=P2V2/T2.


Research
This painting of a cannon from 1326, suports our idea of pressure build up; the pressure will build up in a larger area and will come out of smaller area to push the cannonball.

Hypo-Thesis

These researchers believe that through Boyles' Law, which states at a constant Kelvin Temperature the pressure and volume of a gas are inversely proportional, that after fuel is poured into our cannon the temperature will cause the the pressure to build up and cause the volume to decrease and cause the ball to explode out. This will be similar to a syringe effect where as pressure builds the volume becomes smaller and forces the liquid out, except our cannon will be using temperature.

Sketches for Cannon

Original Sketch. We had a wider opening of the cone and an overall longer launcher.

Second sketch. In this sketch we have dimensions for our launcher. We actually changed this so that the body is shorter.

Procedure

Planning
We looked up other cannon designs and we put together our former knoweldge to come up with our own design.

Design
We used our knowledge of cannons and pressure/volume relationship to come up with sketches.

Building
First we marked our tennis ball tubes with the dimesnions we came up with, in our skecthes.

Next we cut the tubes.

After we cut the tubes, we taped the tubes together.

Pictures of the Finished Project

Testing
To test it, we had ethanol in the bottom of our launcher and lit a wood splinter, that led to the ethanol.

Reflection

Unfortunatley, our cannon did not fire well do, we believe this is so, because the pressure that built up in our cannon was not compressing well, due to the high volume. Next time we would minimize the space in the cone, that way so our cannon would perform better. Our cannon's construction did hold well, because of the stable construction, and because we kept the metal ring on the exterior the heat did not cause the cannon's exterior to melt like some other groups. Working around with a group that I'm not that familar with has helped me realize that communication is key, and that in order to be a good group, you must keep the communication flowing.

Here are some pictures of the ball we attempted to launch.










As you can see, the ball was burnt. But unlike other cannons, ours, did not deform.







Other Groups
This was one of the smaller cannons, it didn't prove as effective, due to the jagged edge at the top of the cylinder.









This cannon proved to be the best with a result of shooting the ball around 20 feet.




Although this cannon proved to be such a good one, it compressed easily to the heat.

This Cannon proved to be very successful, since the cannon was constructed well, where it caused the nerf ball to explode out.

This cannon has a big opening volume, and because of it the ball hardly popped out.

This is Mr. Kelly putting the ethenol into one of the cannons.

This cannon is small, and proved to be ineffective because of the volume piece wasn't assembled
small enough so enough force would be emitted.

Another view of this cannon. Notice the metal ring that serves as the base.

One of the cannons, that was configured with an angle, so it doesn't rest at the base. The cannon began to melt because of the after effects of the hot water vapor and heat.

This cannon was thought to work extremely well, but didn't. We think it was because the top melted the fastest, and didn't allow the ball to escape fast enough.

This was an interesting cannon and design. Aside from the name it looked well constructed, but because of the size and top, we think it didn't perform as well because of it.