Sources:

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

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/77/Bronze_Demi_Cannon_Culverins_Pmoth.png

http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/TsarCannon.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Rifled_muzzle_loader_HMS_Gannet.JPG

Procedure to Create Cannon

1)Cut off bottom end of tennis ball can to be the barrel

2)Cut a straight line down the barrel almost to the end

3)Overlap the pieces to narrow the barrel, then tape to be airtight


4)Cut the base can a little more than half & place lid over cut area (stabilize)


5)Cut a hole into the base tennis ball can (for barrel to rest in)


6)Tape barrel (45 degree angle!!!) to base using hole in step 5 as a cradle-type rest

7)Poke small hole into bottom side area (to be able to light cannon) and you're COMPLETE!

Elements of our Cannon

Plan of Design: We choose a simple design, where we would cut the end off of one tennis ball can (the cap is closer to bottom) then use the other can as our base. The cannon barrel will be positioned on the base so it is at a 45 degree angle. We poked a small hole in the lower side of the bottom of the barrel. This hole will serve as the entrance to lighting the ethanol in the cannon. We decided to cut along our barrel & then try to make it more narrow by overlapping the parts & taping it airtight. 

Launching Angle: We chose to launch our cannon at 45 degrees because it will shoot the nerf ball up pretty high but also launch it out pretty far. Hopefully, this angle will send the nerf ball really far! (The objective is to shoot furthest.) When we did research, we got that anywhere between 35 and about 50 were the optimum angles to shoot from.

Gas Law Used: We used Gay-Lusaac's law that says the pressure of gas is proportional to temperature (in kelvin) if the volume is held constant. So if the temperature goes up, the pressure goes up; if the temperature goes down, the temperature goes down, as long as the volume is constant. When the ethanol is light, the temperature in the cannon will quickly rise, creating the nerf ball to shoot out of the cannon barrel. 

Chemistry Reaction: 

C₂H₅OH + 3O₂ --> 2CO_{2+ 3H2O}

The CO2 will gain pressure in our cannon barrel & launch the nerf ball.

Difficulties In Construction?

We didn't have any difficulties when we were constructing our cannon, besides being worried if it was air-tight. We don't want any of the ethanol gas escaping because then the pressure can't build up & send our nerf ball flying!

Materials/Tools used to Create Our Cannon

We had to create a cannon using very limited supplies & tools. We will light our cannons with ethanol & shoot a nerf ball out of them when the appropriate weather comes around. Here's everything we used to create our cannon!

Materials:

• 2 tennis ball cans with caps
• 18 inches of duct-tape/masking tape
• A nerf ball (not pictured)

Tools:

• A protractor 
• Scissors
• Compass (not pictured) 

Math Component

A cannonball is shot upward from the upper deck of a fort with an initial velocity of 192 feet per second.  The deck is 32 feet above the ground.
Use this formula to solve the problem:  h = -16t²+v₀t+h₀

The quadratic model is:  -16t²+192t+32

1.     How high does the cannonball go? 608 feet

(Remember you are looking for a specific part of the vertex.)

2.     How long is the cannonball in the air? __12.15 seconds_

(Remember you can use the quadratic formula.)

How I solved:

     Mainly, I used my TI 83-Plus, which is a special graphing calculator. All I had to do was plug in the function into my "y=" key. I used "2nd TRACE" to find the maximum point of the line. That value shows how high the cannonball went in the air. (608 feet) I clicked the "TABLE" key to see how long the cannon was in the air, & looked for when the cannon was at 32 (the original point) again. The graph is a parabola, so it looks like a big upside-down"U." 

Take a look at the diagram I made for a clearer understanding:

Ethics of Weapon Development

Question: Is it moral for societies to develop weapons of mass destruction for any reason?
I believe that violence is already such a major role in today's society & in order to protect your country you need some form of weapons. I think that if violence wasn't the solution to major problems for feuding areas, then weapons of mass destruction wouldn't be needed. There are a lot of things that we need to protect our country from & when weapons are necessary then it's the only way to provide citizens with the protection the deserve. I think weapons that aren't completely necessary should not be developed by anyone. Unless there is a purpose of creating & developing & advancing weapons, I think that they shouldn't be used at all. 


Question: Discuss the ethics behind and the impact of the weapons that were used in A Long Way Gone.
The Sierra Leone army gave highly dangerous weapons to very young boys in order to fight a war for their country. There were people invading towns & killing relentlessly, there were innocent citizens being shot dead for no reason, & there were young children being drugged & brainwashed to kill. Weapons played such a huge role in this book. The child soldiers depended on their guns to keep them alive, to them, a gun meant life. I completely disagree with the entire situation. It is not okay to have young children seeing these immense amounts of violence, much less be part of the violence. The kids were robbed of their childhood & many innocent people lost their lives due to the crave of power caused by weapons.

History of the Cannon

Pre-1800 Cannons

• Cannons were first used in China, and were among the earliest forms of gunpowder artillery
• In Europe cannons were first used in Iberia, while the Iberians and Spain were in war during the 13th century
• The English cannons were first used for the Hundreds Years War, at the Battle of Crecy, in 1346
  This is a hand cannon from the early 1300s
• The end of the Middle Ages led to bigger and more powerful cannons, plus they became more popular around the world
• In the 15th century cannons were made with mobility in mind, meaning that they were built so they could be transported on wheels
• During this time, they had better gunpowder, improved cast-iron projectiles, and standardization of calibers (so even light cannons could be deadly!)
• By the 16th century, cannons were made with a wide range of lengths and had diameters, but the general rule was that the longer the barrel, the longer the range

This is the Tsar Cannon, which was commissioned in 1586 by a Russian man called Tsar Feodor

• In the 17th century, in England, "demi-cannons" became popular...they are gun styled cannons that fired 32 pounds solid shot & weigh up to 3,400 pounds! You can see a picture of a demi-cannon to the right here ----->

Cannons in the 1800s

• In the early 1800s, there was more focus on the accuracy of long-range fire, rather than on the weight of a broadside
• The "Griffen Gun" was used in the American Civil war & had an effective range of 1.1miles
• The practice of rifling (casting spiral lines inside the cannon's barrel) was applied to a lot of artillery by the time of 1855...it gave cannons stability to improve their accuracy 
• A popular rifling cannon was the "Armstrong Gun" which claimed improved range, power, & accuracy
• By the 1800s most cannons had no problem piercing through wooden ships, however many could not pierce through iron
• Rifled muzzle-loading guns were made & proved to be successful at piercing iron

This is a cannon from 1878, & it's a 64 pounder rifle muzzle loader

Cannons in 1900s-Modern Day

• Widely used types of modern cannons include: howitzers, mortars, guns, and auto-cannon
• Nuclear artillery was experimented with, but abandoned as impractical 
• By 1900s cannons were powerful & accurate
• Cannons proved to be highly effective during World War 1, causing more than 75% of casualties 
• The tendency of creating such large caliber cannons during the World Wars was reversed in recent years
• The US Army, for example, uses lighter & more versatile howitzers
• The auto-cannon, which is similar to a machine gun in the way that it automatically loads ammunition for faster fire,  gained popularity beginning around World War 2
• The year 1911 was when cannons were first installed on aircrafts & most countries were experimenting ways to successfully use cannons of their aircrafts

Pictured here is a modern howitzer at the Colorado State Capitol

Cannons have changed & improved so much from the past to the present! There is sure to be even more changes to cannons in the future, as well as many advancements.