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How to Make a Toy Cannon

A cannon is best known for shooting cannon balls, and a toy cannon should be no different. Real cannons ignite a powder or gas to cause it to suddenly expand, creating tremendous pressure that pushes the cannonball out of the barrel at high speeds. Fortunately, there are things around the house that you can put together to mimic this effect without having to resort to igniting anything. Your own body weight can create enough pressure to send a toy cannonball rocketing.

Things You'll Need

Paper towel core
Tape
Tissue paper

Instructions

- 1
  Fold about 2 inches of one end of the paper towel core over itself, creating a taper. Tape this fold down with a generous amount of tape so that air only enters the paper towel core from one open end.
- 2
  Tightly wad up a bunch of tissues or paper towels. Crushing the material as much as you can to make it dense creates a better cannon ball. Place the wad in the open end of the paper towel core to check whether it fits, and add more tissue if there are gaps between the wad and the core. Otherwise, generously wrap tape around the wad for added weight and speed.
- 3
  Place the toy cannon on the flight, jump on the tapered end and watch the toy cannonball shoot out.

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