[Promotum] SCIENCE!

[Edmund A. Hintz]

(Subject to be said in best Thomas Dolby voice)

Hunter and I had some fun today; we built a cannon out of a piezoelectric
generator and a film canister(fuel: Binaca breath spray). It was also of
course intended to show how the air/fuel mixture expands, and since the
canister has an opening on one end it naturally expands that direction
causing the canister to move in the opposite direction. Quickly. ;-) Sam
was out while we constructed it, she called while we were testing and it
was amusing to hear Hunter explaining how the expanding gases were
causing the canister to fly across the kitchen.

Photos of the device, including a nice action shot with flames shooting
out of the canister, can be found at this link:

http://www.hintz.org/photos/public/science/index.html

I'd love to say the idea was all mine (and I've been known for
pyrotechnics in the past, as my Mom will no doubt attest to), but it's
actually from scitoys.com; a very worthwhile site for those with kids.
Having spent about 2 hrs on a science experiment, he's begging to do
another one tomorrow-this is what learning *should* be like...

Some notes on our construction: The lumber is scrap (obviously) and we
didn't bother with fancy finishes. The rubber feet on the bottom are
actually surplus firewall gaskets, normally they live between an engine
and passenger area keeping wires from chafing on the metal firewall.
Having a pneumatic finish nail gun and stapler makes this kind of project
much easier (and when the base started to crack near the end of
construction the framing nail gun did a nice job of smacking it back
together with the big ol' 2.5" nails). The piezoelectric generator came
from a Scripto candle lighter; Rite-Aid had 'em on sale, 2 for $5, so now
I have a high class bbq lighter too. Whee!

Scitoys link:

http://www.scitoys.com/scitoys/scitoys/thermo/thermo2.html

Peace,

Edmund A. Hintz              **|**     "You may say I'm a dreamer,
Mac Techie, Unix Geek,      *  |  *      But I'm not the only one...
Mac/Unix Consultant        *  /|\  *     I hope someday you'll join us,
<ed@hintz.org>              */ | \*      And the world will live as one.
'78 Westy                    *****      Imagine."
                     http://www.hintz.org