Air Vortex Cannon is a device that fires doughnut-shaped air vortexes, which called, toroidal vortexes. These vortices are completed transparent, because they are air; and can travel several meters before falling apart. We plan to make vortex cannon by using solo cups and water bottles. The materials we are going to use are solo cups, water bottles, balloons and rubber bands. This is a video that demonstrates the activity.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpscMWoompw
The video shows how to make vortex cannons. However, instead of using tapes, we plan to use balloons and rubber bands. Also, we won’t adopt the method of testing them with light up candles, since it can be unsafe. We will use a stack of cups instead, and see how many cups can be knocked down by the air cannon. In addition, we will prepare different kinds of bottles and cups, so that kids can explore whether the lengths and volumes of the bottles will affect the efficiency of the cannon. It’s a simple process to make a vortex cannon, but I think kids will have a great time by trying out different air cannons. Also, we will only use regular water bottles and cups, so that the air shots out are mild and won’t create any safety issue.
Moreover, if using a fog machine won’t violate any safety policy, we would like to fill a vortex cannon with fog. When it fires out, instead of a blast of smoke, people will see smoke rings (toroidal vortexes). In the meanwhile, we will explain the science behind this fun experiment, fluid dynamics. When an air cannon is fired, air will spin from the inside of the ring to the outside. The motion of the air is stable which is kept by the spin and doesn’t require any outside intervention to keep it going. In order to help understand the science, we will have a post board with diagrams and real life applications on it.
