Six of Iola High’s brightest seniors completed an online physics class Tuesday afternoon in finals presentations that featured projects they had constructed.
With a team of administrators and staff looking on, one trio told about a T-shirt cannon made from PVC pipe, while the other threesome demonstrated a hoverboard, straight out of “Back to the Future.”
Kendra Taiclet, Bryan Miller and Matthew Cunningham put together the T-shirt cannon, which may be used to propel souvenirs at sports events.
The device “can be an exciting way for the school to get students and parents into the game, as well as boost everyone’s energy and make games more enjoyable,” they wrote.
To make the cannon more than a novelty and test it against facts learned in physics, the students filled the pressure tank — a sealed piece of 4-inch PVC — with air compressed to 80 pounds per square inch. They then fired bundled T-shirts while holding the cannon, triggered by releasing the compressed air through a valve, at various angles.
“The experimental results supported our hypothesis” of holding it at a 45-degree angle resulted in T-shirts going farther, said Miller.
Air pressure and angle of release, coupled with mass of the projectile, determines how far an object travels, the students added, and at 45 degrees the cannon was perfectly capable of lofting a T-shirt to fans sitting in the second deck of a stadium.
An air cannon operates similarly to a paintball gun. A series of valves and regulators control air pressure, which determines muzzle velocity and distance attainable.
In summation, they said at 45 degrees a typical bundled T-shirt averaged 206 feet, 15 percent farther than when the cannon was elevated to 70 degrees.
FINDING A WAY to defy gravity long has been a goal of man.
Brad Bazo, Christian Kauth and Tyler Shelby found a way, using airflow from a leaf blower to inflate a bladder attached to the bottom of a piece of thin plywood.
“We found information online about hoverboards, and then, working together, developed the calculations to figure out how to make it work,” said Kauth.
The project entailed cutting a hole in the plywood just large enough to accommodate the business end of the leaf blower and covering the bottom with tough pond liner. The pond liner is held down in the middle with a piece of hard plastic, with air flowing from the leaf blower expanding the remainder into a doughnut shape.
Small holes were cut at regular intervals in the inflatable part to allow air to quickly escape, push out from the center and lift the board off the ground. Escaping air also acts as a lubricant.
They demonstrated the hoverboard in Iola High’s gym. One and then another of its creators sat on the board and, after an enabling push, skimmed across the floor.
