Thank you

I thank you for reading my blog and hope you managed to learn something. If you have any suggestions or other comments please put them on the corresponding post your opinion is always appreciated (criticism or not). Thanks again for coming!

My View towards the Creation of Weapons

People used weapons a long time ago,but back then they were used for survival and for defending oneself. As time moved on people began using weapons against one another for power, influence and other greedy acts. As the need to outdo the other called for better weapons the cannon was developed. Eventually weapons developed to such a degree that they can be classified as weapons of mass destruction.

A Sierra Leone Child Soldier
 n.p. Child Soldier Sierra leone. n.d. Web. 22 May 2006.

The main ethic called into place in weapons manufacturing is, does one have the right to kill others for  gain? One of the main problems with weapons is that the people who use weapons to accomplish goals aren’t the only ones who get hurt. Take Sierra Leone for example a group of people known as the RUF (Revolutionary United Front) who wanted to over throw Sierra Leone’s government used children hopped up on drugs with rpgs and other sorts of weapons to try and prove their point. All they did however was injure and kill a massive number of innocent civilians as well as ruin the lives of many children.

Explosion Cloud from Hiroshima
n.p. Hiroshima Mushroom Cloud. 1945. Web. 29 January.

When it comes to WMD’s I personally believe that there is no reason on earth any society should develop them. Every time they’ve been used it has changed society for the worse such as Hiroshima, the detonation of just one of these caused a death toll around 100,000 and that is from the actual bomb the after effects it brought killed many others as well.

The only problems with stopping the use or even creation of this weapon is fear and greed. Countries in the world are terrified that the other will use theirs. Plus even if a treaty was designed to ban the manufacture of these weapons some countries will simply continue making them discreetly. Then once other countries have stopped making them the power the countries with WMD’s will have over the others would allow them power to dominate any opposition.

The Math

When it comes to cannons not only is it important to understand the science that allows the cannon to fire, but we must also understand the mathematics behind it in order to determine certain information about the movement a shot from the cannon.

To determine such things we would use the following formula:

-16t^2+vt+h

t=Time in Seconds=x

v= initial velocity: (speed (ft/sec))cos(launch angle)

h=Initial height



 To better understand here is an example:

A cannonball is shot upward from the upper deck of a fort with an initial velocity of 192 feet per second.  The deck is 32 feet above the ground. Determine the highest the cannonball goes and how long is it in the air? 

With this information our Equation should look like this -16t^2+192t+32

I'm going to start off by determining how long the cannon ball remains in the air. This bit of data is the positive x intercept of the formula. To determine the x intercept we must use the Quadratic formula that looks like this:



n.p how to write in quadratic formula. 2010. Web. 29 January 2011.



Filling in what we know we can simplify it down and get the two x intercepts of -.2 and 12.2. Since it is physically impossible for something to be in the air -.2 seconds our cannon shot was in the air for 12.2 seconds.

Now to determine how high the cannon shot goes. The formula x=-b/2a can be used to determine the axis of symmetry. Once we fill in our information (x=-192/2(-16)) we can solve to get 6=x. However since x=time this is not our answer. To answer our question we must 'plug' 6 into the formula for t. With this our Formula should now look as such 16(6)^2+192(6)+32. Which after solving gives us our answer: The highest point the cannonball reaches is six seconds in adn it reaches about 608 feet off the ground.

For our cannon's angle we used the formula for velocity (speed (ft/sec))cos(launch angle). However there was one problem with this... we had no idea how fast a tennis ball can cannon could shoot so we assumed five feet persecond. Now for launch angle we just chose three eperate angles based on our research: 55, 45 and 35 degree's. Putting these value's in the function we reciever the following values respectiavley; 3.214,3.536,4.096. Naturally we figured the highest velocity would be the best, however at 35degrees we realized that we would have to have the base almost obstructing the cannon so we went with the solid 45 degrees.

The Project

The Ninth Grade Issac Bear Early College class has been assigned a project base upon cannons. One of our objectives was to create a self supporting cannon that could successfully fire a Nerf ball out of two tennis ball cans (+lids) 18 inches of tape and .99% ethanol gas, we also had access to scissors and a protractor for construction purposes.

The science behind our cannon is the chemical reaction known as combustion. The chemical equation of ethanol is C2H5OH + O2. During combustion a chemical bursts into CO2 and H2O. So our basic equation is C2H5OH + O2 → CO2 + H2O. To balance it we put integers next to the elements so that there are an equal number on each side. This will leave our final equation as such C2H5OH + 3O2 → 2CO2 + 3H2O. This simple reaction is the driving force behind the cannon and the science behind combustion.

Our First idea was to use one of the tennis cans as a barrel to hold the cannon in and then use the second can as a stand. To increase the amount of force propelling our projectile our group recalled Boyle's gas law which states that as volume decreases pressure increases so we thought the best idea would be to cut off roughly 1/4 of the barrel away. I also proposed the idea that we use the label's as a form of insulator since Gay-Lusac's gas law states as temperature goes up so does pressure.This idea was rejected once I was told that the label's were highly flammable... go figure. One problem that arose however is that we couldn't decide what angle to set the cannon at.

After several calculations  and research on the Internet we determined the best angle would be 45 degrees. We determined this because based on Internet research the best cannon angle was between 35 and even up to 50. We noticed that as the angle went down the initial velocity was greater... however lower than 45 degrees would mean we would have to remove our stand and our cannon wouldn't fire properly then. 

After we cut the barrel we thought that maybe we could cut off more to increase pressure further. We then learned (from a blog from last years class) that if we reduced the barrel too much the cannon might not fire and the explosion would melt it. We overcame this obstacle my coming up with the idea of thinning the width of the barrel itself which would keep the length needed to not stall the cannon but increase the pressure.

After taping our hard work together we came up with the end result:

In review there's not much I would have done differently except maybe shortened the barrel just one more inch. However the hardest part of making it was making sure that we could thin the barrel but still keep it air tight.

Overall I think our cannon will have two possible outcomes. The first one is our cannon will fire a distance near the top margin of our class's due to the extra build in pressure due to the thinned barrel and 45 degree  angle. OR because of the thinned barrel the ball will become stuck and we will have gone from making a succesful cannon into making a successful crater. But just for added luck the other members of my group I decided to add a large quantity of stickers


 Resource:
Pictures;

Sunny Platt. "Our Cannon.", January 21. Camera. January 24.

Wish us luck

Modern Cannons

As the 19th century comes to a close several main changes had come into universal effect these main changes include the introduction of a smokeless gun powder which was first used in the Russo Turkish war (1877-1878) as well as having steel being made the new gun metal. This as well as better sighting and laying systems which greatly improved methods of indirect fire (fire that doesn't use it's target as a direct method to aim) as well as replacing smooth bore barrels with rifling (the casting of spiraling lines down a cannons barrel)

WWI Howitzer
Klee, Paul. M1917 155mm Howitzer. Around 1918. Web. February 2 2011.

Now as the 20th century opens howitzers and mortars become more prevalent especially in WWI such as the M1917 Howitzer which helped the allies win WWI when trench warfare came into play. This was due the indirect firing mechanisms that howitzers and mortars used that could hit targets not in a direct line of sight. Now while modern cannons and mortars could fire multiple types of round explosive rounds were the most sought after as it could cover a larger area. However howitzers can shoot armour piercing rounds land mines and even nuclear weapons.



Explosive round
WW1 HOWITZER 4.5inch PROJECTILE WITH No83 Mk2 FUZE . Museum of Technology. Web. 3 Feb 2011.



Paris Gun
PinGuin .Paris gun.  Web. 3 Feb 2011.

WWI also marked the longest ranged Howitzer in history with the German Paris Gun. This immense howitzer could fire at paris from 75miles away. While it wasn't that effective as it could only hit a city cized target it was still a revolutionary psychological weapon. Another draw back with it was that every successive shot a bit of the bores barrel would be damaged.

 Around the middle of the 1900's during WWII the evolution of artillery made several tremendous improvements. Such as the creation of the proximity fuse.

Proximity fuse
George Skadding. Proximity Fuze. 1901. Web. 3 Febuary 2011.

The proximity fuse was a form of round that fell under the fuze(a device that initiates a function) category. The fuse was designed to detonate when it came in close proximity to a target. These fuzes were a major role in the Battle of Bulge 16 December 1944 – 25 January 1945.  Because of this the America managed to weaken German forces significantly. Without this development WWII may have made a turn for the worse as the Battle of Bulge was Germany's last major attempt to gain ground.

M198 Howitzer
M198 Howitzer. Web. 3 Febuary 2011.

As we reach more modern times Armies have sought to start creating lighter forms of artillery the perfect example is the M198 Howitzer. Which has reduced in size since past Cannons uses indirect firing like cannons of the past. It can fire even more rounds than it's predecessors; from illumination to even white phosphorus (gas that can ignite fire) The cannon itself has been used in wars since 1968 and even now.

However like all it's predecessors it's constantly evolving, soon it will be succeeded by the M777. Like technology Cannons will always keep evolving and who knows what we'll see in the future.

Resources:
"History of Cannon." Wikipedia.com. Wikipedia, n.d. Web. 2 Feb. 2011.

"Proximity Fuze." Wikipedia.com. Wikipedia, n.d. Web. 3 Feb. 2011.


"Battle of the Bulge." Wikipedia.com. Wikipedia, n.d. Web. 3 Feb. 2011.


"What is shot out of a Howitzer." Answers.com. Wikipedia, n.d. Web. 2 Feb. 2011.

Pre 1800's cannons





An Iron Bombard weighing in at around one and a half tons
n.p. The Bombard. The company of St.Barbara,The Company of St.Barbara. Web. January, 23,2011

 

Pre 1800s

By the 1400's century the basic artillery weapons had evolved into huge weapons called Bombards  which were constructed of a solid bronze piece or made of iron bars held and bound by hoops. The difference between the two is that bronze bombards  made of one piece were less likely to back fire however iron (which could not be cast) was a cheaper metal at the time made it easier to make the multi piece bombards.

Great Turkish Bombard made of Bronze
Joseph Needham Dardanelles. Science and Civilization in China, Cambridge University,Muslim Heritage. Web. January, 23,2011



Bombard Round
n.p. bombard cannonball.,All empires. Web. January, 15,2011

 The most formidable bombards were created by the Turks who's bronze bombards weighed a whopping 19 tons and could fire a 600 pound stone ball 7 times in one day. These bombards took around 200 men to move and needed to be placed on heavy wooden mounts. Another problem with these Bombards was that moving crews or gunners were not permanent so they were hired as needed; usually master gunners were civilian artists and not professional soldiers.  Bombards played a role in the Ottoman victories such as in the Siege of Constantinople  which marked the end of the Byzantine Empire, an empire which had lasted for over 1,100 years and some mark it as the end of the middle ages



A Mounted Culverin
A Culervin. American Rennisance. Web. January, 23,2011



In the 1400's-1500's gunnery, the making of guns and of gun powder had become a closely guarded secret. It was kept so secretive that society believed gunners and gunnery as a form of sorcery and that they were in league with demons. To go along with this captured artillery men were often tortured or mutilated. Around 1470 the art of casting drastically improved along with improvements in gun powder lead to smaller and stronger cannons throughout the 1500’s.  This evolution lead to the creation of cannon’s such as the Culverin family. Culverins came in several different varieties and are the ancestor to the musket. They came in different varieties such as the hand culverin which was basically a hand held smooth bore cannon that relied on gunpowder and a match cord which was a slow burning fuse that would ignite the gunpowder. The hand Culverin eventually evolved into a portable but heavier Culverin which required a swivel for aiming purposes. However even though cannons mobility improved somewhat through the 1500’s cannons were still rather cumbersome to move around as well as the ammunition. Which at the time consisted of either a standard cast iron cannon ball, or a Grape shot (a round that contained multiple spheres that would scatter out upon firing) .  During the 1500’s cannons became so valuable that they were sometimes stolen by freebooters and the like. Not only this but during battle since cannons were so difficult to maneuver they were captured with every turn in a battle.

Grape shot
n.p. Grape and Canister Imgegloss.Looking for Whitman. Web. January, 23,2011

However as the 1600’s came Gustavus began reducing the caliber of Switzerland’s artillery which helped make his guns more mobile. These improvements helped king Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden win several battles in the Swedish war which was part of the Thirty Years war which limited the power of the Holy Roman Empire and decentralized German power, as well as influence future cannons.

Resources:

Rob Ossain,. "The Pirate King".. History Channel,. Internet. January 15-23, 2011.

"Fall of Constantinople." Wikipedia.com. Wikipedia, n.d. Web. 16, January 2011



"Culverin Information." ireference.ca, Wikipedia, n.d. Web. 16, January 2011



"Thirty Years war." Knowledge4Africa.com, Knowledge4Africa, n.d. Web. 16, January 2011



"What was the result of the Thirty Years War." Answers.com. Wikipedia, n.d. Web. 16, January 2011

Cannons the 1800's to the 1900's

Bronze 12 pounder napoleonic cannon
Yosam 12pound Napoleon cannon.. waymarking Web. January 26 2011

Early in the 1800's cast iron began replacing bronze as the most common gunmetal. This was influenced by America's growing iron industries (however in 1836 bronze became the common mobile cannon material).



 

Case shot
shrapnel shell. inert-ord Web. January 26 2011



Napoleon owed much of his success in the Napoleonic wars as, well as other battles he took place in during his life time, to these improvements of the cannon.  Napoleon, whom started off as an artillery officer, knew the power of the cannon on the battle field. When he came to power he used artillery to its fullest, he would use 4-12 pounder bronze cannons With case shot rounds, which were much like grape shot rounds but with more, but smaller spheres to weaken the opposition from a distance then attack with his artillery men.  He used this strategy to conquer most of Europe. Napoleon received a blow of irony during the battle of Sedan as Prussian troops used these cannons to completely cover the French army from a distance. January 16^th After Napoleon’s defeat France eventually returned to a peaceful state however Napoleon with the help of Cannons managed to influence revolutions from France all the way to Romania.



12 pounder cannon
Model 1857 12 Pound Bronze Napoleon Civil War Cannon. Cannon superstore.Web. January 26 2011



In 1853 “Napoleon” smooth bore cannons were developed in France and adopted by America in 1857. They played important roles in America’s Civil War (1861-1865) as they were mobile and still had excellent killing power the use of these cannons helped the Union win the war which helped form the country we have today.

Resources:

Rob Ossain,. "The Pirate King".. History Channel,. Internet. January 15-26, 2011.

Richard Moore .Napoleonguide. Version number. Richard Moore. Web. January 25 2011.

"Case shot." Wikipedia.com. Wikipedia, n.d. Web. 16 Jan 2011.

"The Napoleon 12-Pounder Field Gun Model 1857." hmdb.org. hmdb, December 2 2009 Web. 24 Feb. 2009.

"Battle of Sedan (1870)." Wikipedia.com. Wikipedia, n.d. Web. 16 Jan 2011.

Cannons

n.p. "Cannon." Internet Gif file. Gifs.net. n.d. January 14th 2011

A cannon is a piece of artillery that uses an explosive based propellant to launch a projectile. The word cannon comes from multiple languages and usually means tube or cane.

Hello this is Casey Wenner's Blog about the artillery piece known as the cannon and how it has evolved with time. Our Freshman class at Issac bear has been assigned a project about cannons in which we must maintain a blog documenting all our research and work we put into this project. We must first understand the evolution of the cannon through research, as well as arguing the ethics of Weapons of Mass Destruction development. Then we must work out the mathematics behind the projectile motion cannons use. Finally the Coup De Grace we have to construct a working cannon that can propel a small Nerf ball the farthest using two tennis ball cans (+ the lids) 18 inches of tape 99% ethanol and a match. (The last two being used to actually fire the cannon)



Resources:

"Cannons." Wikipedia.com. Wikipedia, n.d. Web. 14, January 2011