Conclusion

At the end of the project, our group felt that we had achieved our goal of obtaining quality, multiple exposure high speed photographs of a popcorn kernel popping.  We also successfully took videos of a popcorn kernel popping using the MotionScope 8000s.  With these pieces of media we were able to determine the initial velocity of the pop, as we had wanted.  We determined that there is no “average” velocity of kernels popping because the velocity changes with each pop.  We had one velocity that was around 4 m/s and then another that was only 1.5 m/s.  That is a wide range of velocities.  However, in general, the bigger the pops are the higher the velocity is.  Also, we successfully observed patterns of kernels popping based on their size and shape.  This was to simplify the project, but in the future it could be possible to compare the volume of the kernel to its velocity if each kernel was measured beforehand.  We could also compare the kernel's volume to the volume of the final piece of popcorn.  If we were to redo this project in the future, we would try and decrease the amount of smoke produced.  This would allow us to take more pictures because we would not have to reset the trigger every time.  Overall, this was a fun project.  We would recommend this for future investigations.