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A Couple More Nuggets
Thomas doesn’t know which week it is; thinking there is one more week of term he drags Robin to his garage to test some vacuum cannon upgrades. Thomas and Robin also look backwards and forwards though the podcast’s second season. A Tight Collar Thomas has been experimenting with the collars that are used to join vacuum cannon spec pipes. After initial excitement (described in the podcast) Thomas does some further testing (described in an addendum) and finds that they don’t seal perfectly when pushed on dry and that the hole in the middle is slightly smaller than a table tenis ball (which probably doesn’t matter). The collars can be cut in to slices to make round flanges with three benefits: – Greater surface area for the tape to grip – The potential for “reloading” the tape off-line whilst another shot is prepared (one of the issues with the cannon is the pfaff of taping it up in the lesson – Easier reloading when you forget the ball! The slices can also be used as a mechanical support for the “gold standard” flange – if you have managed to persuade tech. to make you them. Thank you. It’s Been… Emotional There are so many people to thank. We would not do this without *you* dear listener. The emails we get cheer us up and keep us going. We have had so many guests; thank you to you for giving up your time and being so flexible. (Special mention here to Miss Neutrino who happily rerecorded the podcast after Thomas didn’t press the right button). Thanks to Patrick Kaplo, who has become a good friend and who we were very disappointed not to meet face to face this Spring. Finally, thanks to our families, who think we are bonkers but wave us off to our respective cupboard and garage each week.
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Uses for a Vacuum Cannon and Deconstruction of Energy
Happy New Year! Thomas and Robin reflect on some questions from the Dulwich IoP Physics Conference and are joined by Patrick Kaplo to talk about uses for the Vacuum Cannon and whether teaching just two energy stores is the way forward. Timestamps New Year Resolutions @ 00:35 We’re going on tour! @ 03:51 Uses for […]
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19. The “New” Model of Energy
Thomas and Robin feel the pain of Physics teachers all over the UK and attempt to get to grips with the new model of energy as promoted by the IoP. No more energy types, just energy stores that increase and decrease in magnitude and transfer processes that are allowed by the energy differences. Timestamps Philae […]
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Vacuum Cannon Tips
After sending out a few cannons, I decided to send out a “Tips” sheet in the cannon packaging to help people get started. I’m reproducing it here for those who didn’t get it: Vacuum Cannon Tips The pipe suppliers are used to providing for large scale filtration systems. They care not about little nicks and […]
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16. The Vacuum Cannon!
Thomas, Robin and Patrick Kaplo discuss the amazing vacuum cannon and how it can be used to make physics thrilling. The cannon is now available in the shop. Buy it and you’ll be supporting the podcast while you have a BLAST! It is half term next week in the UK so it will be two […]
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Making a Vacuum Cannon
The Tube The tube does not need to be super strong (the tape will fail long before the tube), but it does need to be close in diameter to a table-tennis ball (40mm). The right tube is known as Imperial 1½ inch PVC, common in the USA but not so much in the UK. I […]
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Selling a Vacuum Cannon
We are selling Vacuum Cannons in the shop. I am setting it up with some trepidation: if nobody buys one I will be several tens of pounds out of pocket. If everyone buys one I will be unable to make them fast enough to keep up with demand. Of course, the most likely thing is […]