Hmm.. Would have liked to see more details about the accident itself. The cannonball was cast iron? Any estimation about speed and weight?
Actually the biggest surprise were the walls of the house shown (mostly the exterior wall): Is this a brick and mortar house/wall? Or is this wood/insulation mostly?
Edit: In fullscreen that looks to be a wall made of concrete, with a network of iron/steel to support it? Even if it's a ~thin~ wall by some standards, this is a lot stronger than I initially guessed.
You might want to practice comparing results of calculations you make to what seems intuitively likely. I think you would find it's a very helpful in catching errors.
Supposedly they were "trying to figure out how fast a cannonball would travel". Presumably they knew the mass, density and shape... and the force of the explosives being used. Perhaps someone should tell them about physics, it would save some trouble.
With low explosives like those used in cannons figuring out the force can be pretty tricky. This isn't an adiabatic expansion, the force experienced on the ball will depend on how fast the ball is moving. The rate at which the explosive burns depends on the heat inside the chamber which depends on the pressure. The burn rate and rate at which the cannonball leaves, plus a modifier based on how much escapes through the ignition hole, governs the pressure. I really wouldn't trust any calculation of all of the above without experiment.
I was referring to the hosts. I'm neither an explosives expert, nor a physicist, but it seems to me that there would be simpler ways of determining this. Of course, the purpose is vaguely informative entertainment, not scientific research.
Actually the biggest surprise were the walls of the house shown (mostly the exterior wall): Is this a brick and mortar house/wall? Or is this wood/insulation mostly?
Edit: In fullscreen that looks to be a wall made of concrete, with a network of iron/steel to support it? Even if it's a ~thin~ wall by some standards, this is a lot stronger than I initially guessed.