BBC's Bang
Goes the Theory has a great experiment showing you how to make
a spud gun.
What you need:
- Copper piping (ask an adult to buy this at a DIY store if you
don't have any spare at home)
- Large raw potato
- Metal nail file
- Dowel or garden cane
How to:
Remember: never fire your fun at people or
animals. The spud gun can fire a long way at high speed. The best
place to do it is outdoors.
- Ask an adult to saw the copper piping to the size you need
(sometimes the DIY store will do this for you).
- Check the copper pipe is straight and smooth.
- Ask an adult to file any rough edges on the ends of the copper
pipe.
- Place a large potato on a table and hold it with one hand. With
the other hand, push one end of the pipe all the way through the
potato.
- Do the same at the other end of the pipe.
- Line the pipe up an aim at your target - make sure there are no
people or animals in the way!
- Poke the end piece of potato with the dowel.
Fire! The piece of potato at the front of the
gun should fire out.
To fire again, remove the piece of potato that's still inside
the pipe and repeat from step 4.
Too much effort to get a piece of copper pipe? Go to Bang Goes the
Theory to find out how to make a mini spud gun using a ball
point pen.
What's happening?
Plugging both ends of the spud gun creates an airtight seal,
trapping air inside the pipe.
When you push one piece of potato along the pipe, the air
between the two potato pieces becomes compressed. This increases
the air pressure.
When the force of the air pressure on the front potato is large
enough, it will overcome the friction that keeps the potato in
place.
Your potato fires out of the tube!
To find out more about the science behind spud guns and what
scientists use the science for, go to the Bang Goes the
Theory website.