Ping-Pong vacuum cannons, potato guns, and compressed air cannons are popular and dramatic demonstrations for lecture and lab.1–3 Students enjoy them for the spectacle, but they can also be used effectively to teach physics. Recently we have used a student-built compressed air cannon as a laboratory activity to investigate impulse, conservation of momentum, and kinematics. It is possible to use the cannon, along with the output from an electronic force plate, as the basis for many other experiments in the laboratory. In this paper, we will discuss the recoil experiment done by our students in the lab and also mention a few other possibilities that this apparatus could be used for.

Topics
Newtonian mechanics, Educational aids, Lectures
1.
Richard W.
Peterson
,
Benjamin N.
Pulford
, and
Keith R.
Stein
, “
The Ping-Pong cannon: A closer look
,”
Phys. Teach.
43
,
22
–
25
(Jan.
2005
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Crossref
Search ADS
 
2.
John
Cockman
, “
Improved vacuum bazooka
,”
Phys. Teach.
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(April
2003
).
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Crossref
Search ADS
 
3.
Eric
Ayars
and
Louis
Bucholtz
, “
Analysis of the vacuum cannon
,”
Am. J. Phys.
72
,
961
–
963
(July
2004
).
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Crossref
Search ADS
 
4.
A short movie of the air cannon in use can be seen at http://peloton.radford.edu/brett/tpt/air-cannon.mov; Quicktime is needed to see this clip.
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© 2006 American Association of Physics Teachers.
2006
American Association of Physics Teachers
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