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 weeks until episode 17.

• Mars rover named for Rosalind Franklin @ 00:47
• Introducing the Vacuum Cannon @ 1:20
• Robin and Thomas test the cannon @ 4:43
• A joyful enterprise @ 11:40
• Safety considerations @ 13:14
• Tips and tricks for firing it @ 14:46
• Ways to calculate speed @ 17:06
• Selling the cannon @ 23:52

Patrick Kaplo joins the team to talk about the brilliant Vacuum Cannon. This is a recognised piece of equipment, although Thomas and Robin had not heard of it. Thomas built one and tested it with spectacular results. All schools should have one! The cannon is actually covered in detail by CLEAPSS and they give full instructions (with links to where to buy parts) on how to make one (CLEAPSS login needed).

Thomas was so keen to spread the joy, he decided to sell the cannon in our shop and you can pick one up for £20 (including P&P but you need to enter the code BOOM at checkout). You can also support the podcast by purchasing a small upgrade that includes a £5 donation.

Episode 20 (assuming we make it) will be all about ways to teach distance, speed and acceleration (or displacement, velocity and acceleration). How do you do it and what works best for you?

Please share ideas or successes – or indeed questions by messaging us on BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/physicstp.bsky.social .  You can also message us via our website contact form on every page of the web site at  the.physicsteachingpodcast.com, or email using the address given in the podcast (if we remember). We are moving away from X but can be found there as @physicstp.

• Season 7: Physics Is Our Business by Miracles of Modern Science.

The music is used under the Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 International License