During the last few weeks, we have been working on the rocket project. The goal was to build a rocket that will launch and have a parachute that will deploy. I did my project with Izzy Bonecutter and we made a rocket with the theme of “ Aloha.” Our first design concluded of two coke bottles, fiberglass for fins, and puffy paint. The first time we attempted to launch our rocket, we couldn’t because there was a leak between the two bottles. We then put tape on the leak and tried again. The rocket only flew about 4 feet, and when it came down, it still had water in it. So we added another pressure chamber to the bottom of our rocket. At the exhibition, our rocket flew higher than we expected and our parachute deployed. We were very surprised.
This project has really helped me grow as an individual because I needed to focus more. I was in a group with Izzy, my good friend. This made it very hard for us to focus and get anything done. A couple of times, Dave found us dancing in the hallway and running around the school looking for tape. When we realized that we needed to get something done, we started focusing. Thanks to Dave and Austin, we completed it on the last day. I now know that if I work on a project with a friend, I need to take it more seriously. This project was really fun and it was something different from what I am used to. I have never really been able to build something so exciting and do something with it.
Rocket Log
Day 1: We sketched our plan for our rocket and made a list of materials that we will need to make it. Our theme is the beach and it has palm trees and the beach and a mermaid.
Day 2: Today we got our bottles and melted them together. We sanded the bottles, and we started making a plan for our nose cone and parachute.
Day 3: We took our rocket home and put a mermaid and all of our beach plans on our rockets.
Day 4: Today we made our nose cone and parachute. We went out side and we tested our rockets parachute, it didn’t work so we made another.
Day 5: Today we went outside to test our rockets. We couldn’t because when we filled up our rocket, it leaked.
Day 6: Today we realized that our rocket was leaking. And we needed to fix the leak because it was huge. We bought new bottles and redid the glue.
Day 7: Today we tried to launch our rocket again and it only went about 3-4 feet high. We cut off half of the bottom rocket and added another bottle that wasn’t cut at all. It made a big difference.
Day 8: Today we added fins to our rocket. Since we didn’t have a lot of time to do our original plan of using plexiglass. So we used circular plastic tubes as fins and they worked great. We also measured our rocket.
Conclusion Our angle of our rocket was 30 degrees and our observer distance was 174 m. Our actual hang time was 4.39 seconds. Our max height is 30.5/3.3=10.167. Our actual average velocity was 1.15. our theoretical hang time was calculated when we found the tangent of 30, which was our height, then divided that by 53. Then we divided the answer of that by 4.9 and got our theoretical hang time. Our theoretical hang time was high because our parachute deployed.