ISU SPS - Something Destructive! 04-09-08

For this month's SPS "Something Destructive!" outing, we went to the middle of nowhere to fire our range of potato guns. The last time that the largest one was used, it exploded. Since being repaired it has not been tested, so we're not sure of its range.

The cold weather prevented the fuel we were using (ethyl alcohol, WD-40, aerosol hairspray) from having a good vapor pressure in the fuel chamber, so we had some difficulty getting the guns to fire properly or at all. The largest cannon was only capable of a less-than-impressive launch of a grapefruit, which nonetheless made a fairly hilarious sound as the gas expanded in the barrel (I tried to turn up the volume for this part, but my camera does not have a good mic, sorry).

We did eventually get the 2 smaller guns to work better, and went through a 5 lb bag of potatoes, but I didn't film all of the shots since my hands were getting cold. It started snowing on the drive up there!

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• potato
• guns
• gun
• something
• destructive
• idaho
• state
• university
• isu
• society
• physics
• students
• sps

[glork2718]

actually, it's quite powerful - the weather (snowing, cold) just prohibited the fuel from effectively forming a vapor that could combust quickly. The first time that large one was fired, it blew apart and gave the guy who was holding it some bruised ribs. In the summer when it is warm, this thing is effectively a howitzer..

[Danker16]

lmao mines smaller n more powerful...