AstroGrav Help /Sample Simulations /Abstract Systems /Galilean CannonVersion 5.1

Galilean Cannon

This simulation shows a Galilean cannon, as detailed in the Wikipedia article at:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galilean_cannon

This Galilean cannon comprises a stack of three balls, with a large and heavy ball at the bottom, progressing up to a small and lightweight ball at the top. When this stack of balls is dropped to the ground, almost all of the kinetic energy in the lower balls is transferred to the topmost ball, which rebounds to many times the height from which it was dropped. Although this behavior may seem counter-intuitive, it is precisely what conservation of momentum requires.

You can run the simulation to see how the Galilean cannon operates, and edit the masses of one or more balls to see what effect your changes have. You can also add further balls if desired. Since different computers run at different speeds, you may need to edit the evolution time step to get the simulation to run at an acceptable rate.