Today was the second launch day of our bottle rocket. First we timed the launch of a bottle with no modifications. The time was between 4-5 seconds. That surprised us that it could stay in the air that long with no modifications. Luckily, the bottle didn’t land on the roof today. The second launch we did today had a water modification. Instead of using 500 mL, we used 750 mL. According to the recorded time, it was about the same as our first launch, so for the moment we don’t believe that the amount of water makes a huge difference. We plan to try the amount of water used again once our rocket is completed with all of our modifications. We also did a third launch, even though it wasn’t required. We taped the outside of our bottle with duct tape in order to make it sturdier. The water we added for the fuel was about 500 mL. This time, the time it spent in the air was around 6 seconds, which was definitely longer than our previous two launches. On another important note, we pumped each rocket about 10 times. Tomorrow, we plan to make quite a few more modifications, including adding fins, a nose cone, and a parachute. Hopefully we will be able to get it to stay in the air for a longer time than the rockets did today! (The first video shows our launch with 750 mL, and the second video shows our launch with the duct tape modification).
Yes, our trial without any modifications suprised us how long it could sustain itself in the air. Although we've never tried to used as much as 750mL during our trials it does seem to make a difference. Every little bit counts! Thank You!
ReplyDeleteI like that you guys are experimenting with the amount of water used, and that you are keeping track of the other variables to allow for some control. We haven't controlled ours by means of number of pumps, but we've actually done it by levels of PSI or air pressure, and I think our results have shown that more air pressure in the rocket (and releasing the rocket almost directly after pumping so no pressure is lost) actually makes the rocket go higher/longer. We'll try to test this again on Tuesday, but let me know if the amount of water actually does make a difference. :)
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