This is my Lab Report. In this, I talk about all the requirements that were needed to build this project and all the notes and data that we took.
Potato Launcher
By: Christian Alfaro
Subordinates: Kassidy, Nada, and Ryan
My name is Christian Alfaro and I made a potato launcher as my engineering project. The angle that made the potato go the farthest was 30 degrees. We also tried 45 degrees, and 60 degrees. 60 degrees went 26.06m, 45 degrees went 20.574m, and 30 degrees went 38.89248. We used the same potato on each firing, so I believe that we did have a consistent firing.
Introduction
When I was told that the Da Vinci Communications was a project based school, I had no idea what to expect. We were given a huge project on the first or second week of school and I was kind of worried. I was given partners, Ryan, Kassidy, and Nada. At first, we were planning on making a catapult, but that idea was soon taken. With no ideas in mind, one of our friends (Benny) suggested making a potato launcher as a joke. We did take it as a joke first, but then we decided to actually go along with this amazing and silly idea. We then had to come up with a hypothesis. So we came up with the idea of which angle could make the potato go the farthest. I thought that the lower the angle the farther the shot.
Methods
For our methods (on building the launcher), my dad was happy to drive me, Kassidy, and Ryan to Home Depot . We searched and asked for where the pvc pipes might be, and whenever we were told where, the pvc pipe was always to big. We then decided to go to Lowes, we made the right choice because they ended up having all the pvc pipes and cement glue that we needed. Assembling it was another major thing that we wanted to make sure was correct, so we looked for all the correct pvc pipes that we need and then we assemble it all in Lowes to make sure that all the pvc pipes that we acquired actually fit. We did dissemble it because we still needed to cement it all on, and we weren’t doing that in Lowes. Everything fit, we ended making some slight changes to the original design for the better. The whole thing was less than forty bucks. When we arrived to school the next day, we cemented all the parts on in class. After finishing cementing it, all we needed to do was actually fire it. We only used up to 50 psi when firing and we changed the degrees and angles to get different distances. We also shot on the field so that way we could have a wide range of area and vastness. We also tried to get the barrel as perfect as possible so the potato could have a perfect trajectory(we also used the same potato for every single firing).
Data Findings and Observations
There are some obvious things that you will notice as you are building a potato launcher, if the barrel is longer, the potato has a longer and straighter line of fire. The higher the psi, the farther it would go. When it came to observing the potato flying through the air, it was pretty easy. The higher the psi, the farther the launch, and the lower the angle, the farther the shot, at least that’s what I thought. The 30 degree angle shot ended up going the farthest. Now you’re probably thinking to yourself “that sounds about right”, well it gets weird when you look at the 60 degree shot and the 45 degree shot, you see that 60 degrees went 26.06m, and that 45 degrees went 20.574m. If the lower angle goes the farthest, then how come the 60 degree shot went farther than the 45 degree shot, and how come the 30 degree shot (lower that the 45 degree shot) went farther than the 60 degree shot?
Analysis and Conclusion
It seems that even the things that you think are right, can be wrong. I thought that the higher the angle, the shorter the distance, and the lower the angle, the straighter and longer the distance. That ended up being partially correct and partially wrong, but all in general it was fun. When we decided to actually go with the idea of making a potato gun, I was scared. I thought that the rest of the school year was going to be nothing but a bunch of difficult projects, but, it turns out that it is not that hard to make a potato launcher. I am also pretty happy with the results. Even though we only used 50 psi, it still ended up going far on every launch. We got close results to other potato launchers, or at least air combustion ones.
Citation
http://www.advancedspuds.com/safety.htm
http://spudgunner.com/spudgun-types.php
By: Christian Alfaro
Subordinates: Kassidy, Nada, and Ryan
My name is Christian Alfaro and I made a potato launcher as my engineering project. The angle that made the potato go the farthest was 30 degrees. We also tried 45 degrees, and 60 degrees. 60 degrees went 26.06m, 45 degrees went 20.574m, and 30 degrees went 38.89248. We used the same potato on each firing, so I believe that we did have a consistent firing.
Introduction
When I was told that the Da Vinci Communications was a project based school, I had no idea what to expect. We were given a huge project on the first or second week of school and I was kind of worried. I was given partners, Ryan, Kassidy, and Nada. At first, we were planning on making a catapult, but that idea was soon taken. With no ideas in mind, one of our friends (Benny) suggested making a potato launcher as a joke. We did take it as a joke first, but then we decided to actually go along with this amazing and silly idea. We then had to come up with a hypothesis. So we came up with the idea of which angle could make the potato go the farthest. I thought that the lower the angle the farther the shot.
Methods
For our methods (on building the launcher), my dad was happy to drive me, Kassidy, and Ryan to Home Depot . We searched and asked for where the pvc pipes might be, and whenever we were told where, the pvc pipe was always to big. We then decided to go to Lowes, we made the right choice because they ended up having all the pvc pipes and cement glue that we needed. Assembling it was another major thing that we wanted to make sure was correct, so we looked for all the correct pvc pipes that we need and then we assemble it all in Lowes to make sure that all the pvc pipes that we acquired actually fit. We did dissemble it because we still needed to cement it all on, and we weren’t doing that in Lowes. Everything fit, we ended making some slight changes to the original design for the better. The whole thing was less than forty bucks. When we arrived to school the next day, we cemented all the parts on in class. After finishing cementing it, all we needed to do was actually fire it. We only used up to 50 psi when firing and we changed the degrees and angles to get different distances. We also shot on the field so that way we could have a wide range of area and vastness. We also tried to get the barrel as perfect as possible so the potato could have a perfect trajectory(we also used the same potato for every single firing).
Data Findings and Observations
There are some obvious things that you will notice as you are building a potato launcher, if the barrel is longer, the potato has a longer and straighter line of fire. The higher the psi, the farther it would go. When it came to observing the potato flying through the air, it was pretty easy. The higher the psi, the farther the launch, and the lower the angle, the farther the shot, at least that’s what I thought. The 30 degree angle shot ended up going the farthest. Now you’re probably thinking to yourself “that sounds about right”, well it gets weird when you look at the 60 degree shot and the 45 degree shot, you see that 60 degrees went 26.06m, and that 45 degrees went 20.574m. If the lower angle goes the farthest, then how come the 60 degree shot went farther than the 45 degree shot, and how come the 30 degree shot (lower that the 45 degree shot) went farther than the 60 degree shot?
Analysis and Conclusion
It seems that even the things that you think are right, can be wrong. I thought that the higher the angle, the shorter the distance, and the lower the angle, the straighter and longer the distance. That ended up being partially correct and partially wrong, but all in general it was fun. When we decided to actually go with the idea of making a potato gun, I was scared. I thought that the rest of the school year was going to be nothing but a bunch of difficult projects, but, it turns out that it is not that hard to make a potato launcher. I am also pretty happy with the results. Even though we only used 50 psi, it still ended up going far on every launch. We got close results to other potato launchers, or at least air combustion ones.
Citation
http://www.advancedspuds.com/safety.htm
http://spudgunner.com/spudgun-types.php