Project Idea

Introduction
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Hi to everyone here, we are a group of students from Ngee Ann Secondary,and our purpose of creating this blog is to introduce to you our project. The purpose of our project is to find out if normal air of a specific volume is heavier than air with smoke of the same volume, or both are the same in terms of mass. As far as we know, objects can have the same volume but different mass, for example, an inflated balloon with air inside, has a same volume as a balloon with water inside, however the balloon with water, has more mass. Why are we using a vortex cannon? A vortex cannon is a launcher, with air as its projectile. in this case, we uses both air and air with smoke, as the projectile. We will be using paper targets as a measure of how strong the cannon of each launch is. The projectile that is stronger, will be heavier, and therefor the paper target will be pushed away further from its starting point.

Prediction
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Firstly, we predicted that air that has a larger amount of smoke present whill have more weight than air of an indentical composition. As smoke particles are heavy, they would store more kinetic energy as the more mass a matter has, the more kinetic energy the mmatter has. Thus, air carrying smoke will be heavier as compared to pure air.

Experiment
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We are going to test this theory using a vortex cannon. A vortex cannon is a cannon that can fires a ring of air, or rather a air halo in a vortex configuration whichj alllows the projectile of air retains much kinetic energy. Which means, if smoke with air is present, it will have more kinetic energy and therefore, the distance the air halo travels when launched by the vortex cannon will be further as it contains more kinetic energy. Variables such as wind, the amount of both smoke and air present, the amount of energy used (the same person launching), and the starting point of the cannon when it launches.

We are intending to conduct this experiment on the field as it is wide enough to contain our vortex cannon’s projectile. A weak target, like the paper target, will be used to tell how much strength each launch of the cannon will be. However, as the vortex cannon range is not that good, a shorter range is better as it can be easier to predict the strength used, If the impact of whichever air is used is heavier, it proves that the particular air has more kinetic energy, and mass. For accuracy, we will conduct each launch 3 times respectively, and find the average, then compare. For this experiment we will need smoke, therefore, we will obtain the large amount of smoke we needed from incense sticks as they are more affordable and easy to get.

How to make a vortex cannon
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Items we need:

1. Bucket about 30cm wide in diameter prefered.

2. Garbage bag 1 dozen

3. Incense sticks 1 bunch

4. Slingshot rubber

5. Duct tape

How to make:

1. Firstly, cut a small hole at the bottom of the bucket, about 15cm wide in diameter

2. Use the garbage bags, quite a few is needed to cover the entrance of the bucket, not cut one. Extras are for replacement of damaged garbage bags

3. Use duct tape to stick the slingshot rubber to the garbage bag.

4. Burn 1 bunch of incense sticks at the entrance and leave the bucket face up as smoke travels upwards.
5. When ready pull back the slingshot rubber of a prefered strength, then launch, a halo of air will appear.

Group Members: Lee Kwot Sin, Marcus Tang, Tan Yean Keat, Tan Qi Soon.