CO2 Cannon Activity

1
CO2 Cannon Activity

• Incorporates engineering design, chemistry, and
  physics
• Goals
• Optimize the design to produce the
  greatesthorizontal distance
• Minimize the time to launch
• Engineers call this a design optimization problem
• Note Primary goal is to produce a result not
  discover why. Increased understanding comes as a
  side effect.

2
CO2 Cannon Design Parameters

• Amount of water in the cannon
• Temperature of the water
• Size of the tablet (whole, half, etc.?)
• Tablet in one piece or crushed
• Angle of launch
• Seal of the cap

3
Effervescent Chemistry

• H3C6H5O7 NaHCO3 gt NaC6H5O7 H2O CO2 Heat
• Citric Acid Sodium Bicarbonate gt Sodium
  Citrate Water Carbon dioxide Heat

4
Projectile Physics
T
x v0t cos(T) y v0t sin(T) gt2/2 ?r
sqrt(x2 y2)
5
CO2 Cannon Group Discussion

• Characteristics and benefits of Engineering
  Design?
• Activities you can modify to use Engineering
  Design?
• Problems you anticipate and how to resolve them?
• Biggest roadblock to using Engineering Design?