Designing Our Cannon

 Brainstorming:

At first, no one had any ideas, but then we began playing around with the cannons and thought of putting on its side with the the can laying across it. This way, the cannon would not tip over . . . but it would roll. Eli said it would be good to have a small barrel, so we thought we could use the part we cut off, but we didn't know for what, so we decided to work on that as we go. I didn't understand how the cannons would stay together sturdily, so I suggested to cut a part out of the base to make it more stable. Once we had our general idea, we decided to just go with it.

 Building Process:

 

Step One:

Obtain the materials seen in the photo:

1. Two tennins ball cans

2. A pair of scissors

3. 18in of tape

Assumed Materials:
1. Protractor/Ruler
2. Marker

Step Two: 

Draw the design that is going to be 

used to biuld your cannon.  

Bob and I begin marking where we are going to cut

 Step Three:

We began building the cannon. We decided to have a small cut in the base so the barrel could "sit" in it.  

I begin cutting bit base while using my death grip. Cute :)

Step Four:
We start to cut the base making it big enough for the barrell to lay in.

Bob adds cutting marks to the barrel

Step Five:

Marking the place we were going to cut the barrell, we made the cut so that their was only half of the barrell left. We did this so that there wouldnt be enough space for the gas to expand.   

 

Step Six:

We cut the tennis ball can about halfway down or about 5in, from  the rim. This also made it 

easier for us to use a fourty-five degree angle. We chose that angle so that the cannon would 

shoot a greater distance. 

Sarah trims down our extra support system at the end to ensure our 45* angle!

Step 7: We decided to use the part of the barrel we cut as an attachment to the end of it so our cannon would not roll and to ensure it would stay at a 45* angle.

Final Product

Conclusion:
As expected, we did run into some errors:

1.      The tape only stuck to itself

2.       It was hard to punch a hole in the can to start cutting without thinking it would break apart

3.      Measuring an angle against two cylinders is harder than it looks

4.       Having to keep making small cuts became annoying, but you didn’t want to make a cut that was too big (you can always take away, but once you cut it off you can’t put it back on.) 

Overall, I think our group worked fairly well together. By building our cannon as we go and dealing with issues as they happened, I think we made the best cannon we could.