Reflection

After building the cannon and testing it we have concluded the reason behind the cannons failure. We believe that either the ethanol used in the reaction was not properly mixed so that it would react correctly or the temperature that day was too low to create the proper pressure. Gay Lussac's gas law states that as the temperature of the enclosed gas increases,the pressure increases, if the volume is constant. The low temperature on the day of testing could have resulted in the loss of pressure and thus the failure of the launch. If we had done the experiment in a warmer temperature the pressure would have been more and propeled the projectile. Another reason behind this theory is that the many designs that were tested that day all failed, which means that the designs did not cause the failure somthing else did. The ethanol ould have been another problem. If it was not mixed properly the reaction itself would fail and thus lead to cannon failure. We did run a test on the ethanol and the test seemed to conclude the ethanol to be mixed properly howerver we may never know truly until we test agian. The cannon project has tought us much about the function of gases, the projectile formula, and the varous cannon like weapons throughout the years. We should take this knowledge and use it to create the same experiment with the two possible failure points removed.