The Planning & Building of a Cannon

This morning when we started, we had a plan that was similar to this one.

One of the tennisball cans would be cut in half, and we would cut a hole in the middle of it. Can #2 would be put into the hole and would stick out. The ends of the cans would be put underneath Can #1 for support. We'd drill the hole where Can #2 stuck out of the hole in Can #1.  Can #2 - the cannon itself - would be placed at a 45 degree angle, which is prime for shooting for both height and distance. Once we got that working, this is what it looked like.

After a while of cutting and marking on the cans with sharpies, we realized that our idea wasn't working very well. We decided to change our design plan to this:

Instead of having Can #1 be placed horizontally on the table, we placed the end of Can #2 on the table and had the half of Can #1 placed underneath it as a balance. Can #2 was still placed in the hole, so it leaned on the other can for support like our original idea, just vertically. The cannon is still at a 45 degree angle.



Final Product!

There was a lot of trial and error in the making of this cannon. We worked on making it for about an hour and a half, and the first hour was creating sketches and brainstorming together.



Our materials!
 

Can #2 cut in half.

Isai working hard to position it just perfectly.

Adding tape and planning...

Travis working intensely after our idea changes!