Background Research

Background Research

The main concept of our project is the elastic collisions of gas molecules. They are collisions which both momentum and kinetic energy are conserved. The total system kinetic energy before the collision would equal to the total system kinetic energy after the collision. Inelastic collision is when the kinetic energy is not conserved.

In our project we will be using the two main materials to conduct our experiment, which are the Air Zooka and the smoke generator.

AirZooka is close to the smoke ring generator, however it is more of a punch but not with a fog. It is an object that has a closed container with two holes: one in the front and one on the other hand. It is opposite among each other. On one of the holes there would be a plastic cover over it, and attach it with a rubber band to give more force. You can either tap the plastic cover or pull the rubber band. This would create toroidal vortex with no fog.

The smoke generator will have fogs coming out through an open hole. Aerodynamic drag from the side of the ring makes the front of the smoke generator and the air outside the generator makes the fog start to move and rotate. This will create smoke rings.