Repeating Vacuum Bazookas

Vacuum bazookas are a classic demo, which can be used to think about pressure and momentum. We went slightly further and have produced various repeating versions.

The vacuum bazooka is a classic demonstration, you attach a vacuum cleaner to the side of one end of a pipe, cover the end with a piece of card and then drop a projectile down the other end and a the projectile flies down the tube and out the other end.

I got a bit carried away and worked out various ways of building repeating vacuum bazookas, because it sounded like fun (and because I could).

The Vacuum Revolver

This provides you 6 rounds of flying foam in quick sucession with a ratchet system, so repeatedly pulling a piece of string will fire all six rounds one after another.

Showing the ratchet mechanism to fire the rounds The whole vacuum revolver

The Vaccuum Machine gun

For the times when 6 foam projectiles just aren't enough, there is the vacuum machine gun (ok maybe I got a little carried away...). This is a belt fed vacuum bazooka which will fire as many projectiles as the belt is long.

The feed mechanism From the front

 

Here is a video of the vacuum bazookas in action...

 

The Vacuum Bazooka from The Royal Institution on Vimeo.

Themes: 
Forces
Gasses
Vacuum
Also: 
Demonstration
Favourites
Product