Aaron Flass combined his love of science with a long-time tradition of guys everywhere: The potato cannon.
The 8th-grader from Westbrook was at the regional science fair in Mankato Saturday with the results of his “PVC Spudgun” science project.
His goal: To see how to get the most distance by using different amounts of hair spray (the combustible that is lit to fire the spud) and pushing the spud down to different levels in the long PVC barrel. With the perfect combination he sent the spud sailing 340 feet.
He got the idea after a trip to Rapid City where his grandpa and uncle made a potato gun.
“It was really cool.”
Flass joined some 250 other students in grades 712 on the Minnesota State University campus. They represented 29 area schools with winners moving on to the state and international science fairs.
Adam Broderius, a sophomore from Glencoe, is an accomplished participant, having gone to state fairs and attending the International Science and Engineering Fair in Atlanta last year.
For three years he has been studying various things about ethanol. This year’s project came about after he wondered about the pumps at gas stations that blend ethanol with gasoline. Ethanol can be mixed at rates of 20 percent to 85 percent in gasoline.
“I wondered how much ethanol was still in the hose and pump after people pumped different mixtures.”
What he found was that if the prior customer had pumped E85 (85 percent) ethanol and the next customer pumped 20 percent ethanol, the second customer got a slightly higher mix of ethanol.
For larger gas tanks on cars, it made no difference. But for people pumping just a gallon to put in a chain saw or lawn mower, the difference was significant. “ People get E42 instead of E20,” Broderius said.
That could be harmful to some engines and even dangerous if used in a chain saw because the extra ethanol could give the motor a sudden burst of excess power.
Seventh-grader Lauren Strigel, of Chanhassen, is newer to the science fair circuit.
“It’s a lot of talking,” she said as she wrapped up her fifth presentation to a judge. Strigel looked at which products best whitened teeth. She used egg shells stained in coffee, grape juice and Coke and applied various whitening toothpastes and whitening strips. The result, Ultra Brite Toothpaste performed the best.
“The toothpastes performed better than the strips overall,” she said.
Bill Bessler, a retired MSU biology professor who has been director of the fair for 25 years and involved for 35 years, said he still gets a kick out of checking out the projects. Over the years, he said, projects tend to follow the big topics of the time.
“The first years there were lots involving Dutch Elm disease.”
Recent years have produced more projects related to clean energy and global warming. “People now are more sensitive to environmental issues.”
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