Potato Cannon project

Winslow Mohr: C Block

For our second to last project of the year, we designed and built a potato cannon. We had to research online many different ways of designing and constructing potato cannons. Then, with our partner, we each had to design the cannon out of the objects we found in Home Depot on Google Sketch-up. First, we learned how to build basic things with sketch-up, then we had to design the potato cannon completely to scale. One we were done with that, we had to create presentations "marketing" our project. We then all voted for what we thought was the best project, which ended up being a combination of two of them. We then went to Home Depot, bought the parts, and built the cannon with all the specifications we decided on. Our design was very successful. On it's best shot, the cannon shot a potato approximately 150 yards. Compared to our standards, that is very successful. If we were to improve it, I would use primer and work longer on the cannon making sure everything was flush. With this project, I learned how to use sketch-up more proficiently, and learned how to make a good presentation to "market" your idea to a customer. If you were to do it next year, I would say let the kids build it in class and have them make more than one and have a competition.