Designing the Cannon

There were many questions that my group and I had to think about while designing our cannon.  We had to think of how to get to the angle we wanted and before we figure that out, we had to pick out a desired angle.  After we had gotten together, we had observed the materials that we were given and tried to think of a plan. 

Here is a picture of me and my group member Khyber trying to decided on a good angle for the cannon.

We had then decided to go with a 43 degree angle. 

Here is our design for the cannon we were planning on building.

Here, we tried to plan and see how we wanted our cannon to look.

We had ripped off the paper so it wouldnt affect the combustion reaction.

In the picture above is our final result of our cannon.

1900s- Modern Cannons

Napoleon 12 Pounder:
-Around the 1850s, this cannon was made in France for Emperor Napoleon III.
Manufacture: France
Design: This bronze smoothbore has a tube that is 66 inches long and a bore of 4.62 inches.  It had a 5 degree elevation.  The Federal version had a muzzle and the Confederate type had a straight tube.
Battles: the American Civil War
Ammunition Types: Shells, balls, or canisters.

M777 Howitzer:
-This piece of artillery was manufactured by BAE Systems' Global Combat Systems division.  They are replacing the M198 howitzers in the United States Marine Corps and the United States Army.  It is also used by the Canadian forces.
Manufacture: United Kingdom
Design: This howitzer is very light because it is made up of mostly titanium. 
Battles: Battle of Panjwaii
Ammunition Types: Excalibur, M109 ammunition

Works Cited

"Tsar Cannon." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 04 Feb. 2011. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsar_Cannon.

"List of the Largest Cannons by Caliber." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 04 Feb. 2011. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_largest_cannons_by_caliber.

"12-Pound Napoleon Field Gun." Battle of Nashville Preservation Society. Web. 04 Feb. 2011. http://www.bonps.org/gun_02.htm.

"Field Artillery in the American Civil War." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Nov. 2008. Web. 04 Feb. 2011. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Field_artillery_in_the_American_Civil_War.

"Howitzer." Spartacus Educational - Home Page. Web. 04 Feb. 2011. http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/FWWhowitzer.htm.

"M777 Howitzer." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 04 Feb. 2011. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M777_howitzer#Design.

 

"RML 17.72 Inch Gun." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 04 Feb. 2011. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RML_17.72_inch_gun.

 

 

Chemical Equation: Combustion

In order to shoot the nerf ball out of the cannon, we will put ethanol through our hole which will create a reaction of ethanol in oxygen.
This chemical reaction below is not balanced yet, so you will need to balance it!

C₂H₅OH+O₂ à CO₂+H₂O

Here are the steps of how I balanced it:

Math Component

A cannnonball 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.

Quadratic Model:                                     
   1. How high does the cannonball go?
   2. How long is the cannonball in the air?


1.  To find out how high the cannonball goes, you need to find the vertex.
                 Formula: t= -b/(2a)
2.  If you substitute, and solve this--> t=(-192)/(2*-16)
3.  From there you should get 6... t= 6 seconds
4.  Then substitute 6 into the originial formula you had
                 h = -16t²+192t+32
                 h = -16(6)²+192(6)+32
                 h= 608 feet

To figure out number 2, you will need to use the quadratic model to figure out how long the cannonball will be in the air.
1.  -b ±√b²-4ac  You will need the quadratic formula to solve this problem
          2(a)
2. Substitute your known data into the formula
                      -192 ±√192²-4(-16)(32) 
                                      2(-16)
3.  Once you solve this, you should get 12.17
4.  So the time that it is in the air would be
                                    t= 12.16 seconds


   1. How high does the cannonball go?                 608 feet               
   2. How long is the cannonball in the air?           12.16 seconds         

Ethics Of Weapons: Good or Bad?

Is it moral for societies to develop weapons of mass desruction for any reason?  What ethics are "called into play" when manufacturing weapons such as cannons?

-No, I do not think that using weapons are ethical.  I think that using weapons are unethical because I don't believe that innocent people should get hurt in someone else's problem.  The use of weapons can result into mass destruction and deaths of many people and children.  Why should they have to go through that?


English Component:
- In the book 'A Long Way Gone', Ishmael had been exposed to violence at a very young age.  He started to use weapons to kill people.  Later on, Ishmael had realized that many of those people that he had killed were innocent.  At first when he was first exposed to war, he had seen many scary things.  For an example, he had seen a woman carrying a dead baby.  That baby did not have anything to do with the war, and obviously didn't start it, so why did he/she have to suffer?  The baby's death had probably also lead to the mother being very upset.  Once Ishmael started to get used to the war and violence, he started to try to kill people as if it were a game.  He was still at a pretty young age at that time.  I don't think that it is ethical for weapons to be used because they lead to a more violent world, and persuade many of those in the younger generation to want to be apart of it.  Younger children usually don't really understand many things, and make violence a game, like Ishmael had done.  Also highschoolers don't really understand what it is like to be open to violence and that causes them to think its cool and start violence.  I don't think that the next generation should be affected by this, although I don't think there will be a stop to this unless there were drastic measures.

1800s-1900s Cannons

RML 17.72 inch gun
This cannon was manufactered in the United Kingdom, but was then later used by Italy.  This 103 ton cannon was a naval gun and a coast defense gun also.  There are 15 of these cannons made.  They are about 10m long.  There was an inner steel tube which was surrounded by many wrought iron coils.  This structure is really complex.
Manufacture: United Kingdom
Design: It is kind of short, and had a rifled tube and rigid mount.  The inner steel tube had many iron voils surrounding it.
Battles: First World War
Ammunition Types: Shrapnel shell