Is it THIS cool?!

When I read a science publication, whether it’s printed or digital, and I see two of the most awesome and powerful words known to man placed together and used to describe an object, any object, I get all kinds of giddy with anticipation to see what sort of devastation such an object could unleash.

I understand that not all cool word combinations make sense or turn out awesome, like “Thermal Explosion,” “Tsunami Compressor,” or “Robot nipple” … okay, I take that back. Putting a word as devastating as “cannon” (that evokes visions of war technology and otherwise stationary objects moving at really, really unwillingly fast speeds) together with “vortex” (which immediately makes me imagine ocean tankers being swallowed by a giant, spinning chasm, and which is also cool because it has an “x” in it) creates some new quality of unimaginable tech geekery, the likes of which no technophile could go without humping!

And that’s precisely why I had to watch these videos putting such technology on display.

Skipping over the slightly week video about this giant, DIY vortex cannon blowing candles out at 180 feet, enjoy this excerpt from BBC’s Bang Goes the Theory. In it, Jim Stansfield uses a few 1300-fps cameras to show the full straw, stick & brick house-raping potential of a vortex cannon in the sort of slow-mo digital quality that any television producer will tell you is completely necessary for showing proper respect and homage to power. Yes, this does, in fact, mean that all 10 years of Baywatch can be considered a tribute to breast enhancement technology.

Note that the ring coming out of the cannon is not smoke. It’s actually air that has been condensed by the explosion of acetylene and oxygen; so much so, that its moisture content becomes visible. For the record, the invisible cloud of air that rips apart the building models is travelling around 200 miles per hour. To give you some perspective, that’s so fast it’s not even on the hurricane scale, making it beyond a category 5 hurricane’s destructive wind potential.

What I wish a vortex cannon looked like.

If you’re feeling the need to make one of these yourself complete with ear shattering explosions and deadly gaseous mixtures, perhaps you should check out the work and guides of Edwin Wise, from Make Magazine. Or you can just sit back and watch this video of a DIY vortex cannon he built and decide if it’s something you would like to tackle, yourself.

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[-] Author Bio [-]

Zeblue is an amateur graphic artist and blogger, who is hopelessly addicted to Twitter and all things geek. It is his passion to share geek awesomeness that brings his articles to iGeekTrooper.com. Be ready for more.