Original Rocket
Final Rocket
Our Experience:
Final Launch:
Listed below are the results of the required launches, though we did do additional launches.
First Launch: 3 seconds
- Stage of rocket: no modifications, 500 mL, 40 pumps
Second Launch: 1) 5 seconds, 2) 6 seconds
- Stage of rocket: 1) no modifications, 10 pumps, 500 mL 2) tape modification, 10 pumps, 750 mL
Third Launch: 3.41 seconds
- Stage of rocket: elongated, tape modification, fins, parachute, 40 psi, 500 mL
Fourth Launch: 5.4 seconds
- Stage of rocket: elongated, tape modification, fins, parachute, nose cone, 20 pumps, 500 mL
Final Launch: 10.7 seconds
- Stage of rocket: parachute, nose cone, 23052034820375 pumps (actually we just pumped it until it couldn’t be pumped any more), 600 mL
In order to be successful with this project, a clear understanding of the physics of how the water bottle rocket worked was very essential. Every modification we made affected the ultimate success of the rocket. We made a lot of modifications throughout the course of this project, and for our final rocket, we kept some of those modifications and abandoned others. At one point, we added four fins with the hope that our rocket would be more stabilized, which is the point of having fins. However, we may not have made ours correctly and they ended up not making much of a difference for us. We elongated our rocket as well. We then duct taped the entire rocket so that it would become more sturdy, but we came to realize that this plan was not the smartest because it made our rocket too heavy to stay in the air for a substantial amount of time. We also added a nose cone to hold the parachute in place and to have more weight at the top of the rocket. A parachute was added as well, and we experimented with a couple of parachutes throughout the course of the project--an octagon and a rectangle. The point was to try and design a parachute that would open correctly and catch the most air. This ended up being the rectangular parachute attached to the rocket with eight pieces of yarn. In the end, our parachute consisted of one 2L bottle with the previously mentioned parachute and a nose cone. This was enough, with the wind, to achieve our goal of 10 seconds. Weather was a big factor; some days were really sunny with relatively no wind, while others were really rainy and windy. All of the conditions had their pros and cons, but for us, the wind actually really helped us during our final launch.
Overall, we both really enjoyed our project, even though it could be stressful at times. Watch our video to hear our experience (:
I like how you clearly depicted the modifications and quantitative information for each launch day to show progress over time. I agree that elongating the bottle can be detrimental because I think that adding half of another bottle to my rocket impaired the flight since the pressure had to move more mass. If it was lighter, it would have went higher.
ReplyDeleteFirst off, I love how organized your final blog is! Haha if Mr. Blake doesn't give you guys a 100% for it, I don't know what would be a more perfect blogpost. It's nice how you labeled each launch with the times you got because the viewer can see how you've improved and what changes were needed in order to create a successful rocket. Good job to the both of you :)
ReplyDeleteThanks Amber, I agree about the elongation of the bottle.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much Rachelle, that's so sweet!