Vacuum Cannon Kit
This is the Vacuum Cannon kit as detailed in the PDF brochure. Please select the kit options below. The table shown is for display purposes and is not included with the kit. After purchase, you'll receive an access code for the downloadable materials on the Resources page. A separate email will be sent with the password protected PDF Teacher's Guide.
Return and Refund Policy
Returns and refunds will be considered on a case by case basis. Each kit comes with a 2 year warranty from the date of delivery. Please email support@austineducationllc.com with any questions.
Shipping Information
Standard ground shipping is chosen by default. Please send an email to support@austineducationllc.com if you need expedited shipping. For kits that normally have free shipping, additionally shipping charges will be applied and you may be sent a new invoice.
Reviews
I first came across the Vacuum Cannon from Austin Education at an American Association of Physics Teachers annual meeting. What was on display was a final draft prototype, not then connected to a vacuum. But Austin‘s description of the manufacture and operation of the cannon opened my eyes to its possibilities. (So, later, did his impressively-detailed users guide, and technical documentation.) I run the Demo Lab at an R1 university, but I’ve also taught physics at high school and college levels. I was so impressed that I bought the very first model off the production line.
The kit is fairly straightforward to set up: the written instructions are detailed and crystal clear. It took a few rounds to get the hang of sealing off the ends of the tube with ordinary masking tape, but once I got the technique down, it proved to be easy going; improper taping goes quickly to near zero. In the only public use of our vacuum cannon thus far, an undergraduate picked up the sealing technique from me right away, and we fired 30 or more consecutive rounds in a large public venue without a single hitch.
That first public use well illustrated the range of learning opportunities with the VC. The larger theme of the event was astrophysics; we used the cannon to illustrate how we can measure the velocity of particles moving faster than we can easily see them. Conservation of energy was discussed throughout the evening in a variety of contexts, from the work it takes to push someone on a swing, to calorimetry in particle physics. The nature of a vacuum allows for simplification of the relevant force diagrams and comparison with other more familiar contexts of force application.
It is worth noting that while the Vacuum Cannon set that we received and tested comes with a full complement of tools, projectiles and target options, these can be easily modified or supplemented, which gives the demonstration considerable flexibility for a variety of different settings and instructional purposes. For example, while we used one of the boxes provided as the target in the large and lengthy public demonstration mentioned above, we fire the cannon into a fixed trash can with padding in our more space-limited demo lab, a slow-motion video of which is linked below.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/YKK4ydD4ip6iA51x8
Tom Loughran, Ph.D.
Instructional Resource Program Manager
Department of Physics & Astronomy
University of Notre Dame