Final Blog Post For The Penultimate Project (we'll be starting a new one 4th Quarter)

Please watch our video montage! :)

Song: "One Thing" by One Direction ©2011. Disclaimer* we do not own or claim to represent One Direction. All copyrights reserved.

It's only been a couple of weeks since we started this project, and in those short weeks, Keana and I have learned so much and had a lot of fun. We're a little sad that it's over. We didn't think we would really get into the project, but surprise! We ended up really caring a lot about what happened and how we could improve/modify our rocket. Every time we launched, we improved- either in time, in modification, or in the breadth of our knowledge.

For example, on the final day, with all of its bad weather, we launched three times. The first launch that day used 500mL of water and 40psi, and had a time of 5.3s. The second launch that day used 750mL of water and 55psi, and also had a time of 5.3s (I think that's what Mr. Blake said, so please pardon me if I am incorrect). The (unfortunate) final launch that day used 800mL and 60psi, and had a time of 7 sec. This is a great comparison to our first launch day— we used 500mL of water, 40psi, and no modifications to get 3 seconds in clear conditions. Although the first launch and the final launch's times were just a few seconds apart, the differences came from the weather conditions, the modifications, and especially the amount of water and pressure.

We learned so much that final day— the more water (fuel) and pressure, the better chance our rocket had staying in the air for a longer period of time. The relationship between those two variables was finally made clear as we realized that the more water, the longer the time, but more pressure was also needed in order to expel that fuel and propel the rocket.

Science was also an integral part of the various factors involved in this project. Amount of water, pressure per square inch, wind, weather, trajectory angle, mass, length, friction, and force were all closely examined and manipulated as needed. (A great site that helped explain this to me: http://microgravity.grc.nasa.gov/education/rocket/rktstab.html.) We found that the theoretical ideal conditions to make a water bottle rocket that lasted at least ten seconds were:

• a sunny, relatively calm day with a slight breeze (could help the rocket's time)
• 700-800mL of water and at least 60~psi to compensate for the amount of water
• a vertical trajectory angle (so the rocket would not get eaten by Konia's roof, Akahi's roof, or Midkiff's roof/tree)
• a 2-bottle, 2L rocket with four fins placed lower on the sides for the center of pressure
• a parachute made of a large trash bag, reinforced with duct tape and 8 strings
• a smaller nose cone that was able to easily pop off and deploy the parachute

Attempting to control all of these variables was quite exhausting and often beyond our reach. We did, however, have a lot of it explained from this website: http://www.ohio4h.org/sciencealive/rocketsaway.html) We did manage to create a pretty decent rocket, but our largest problem by far (besides the weather) was the nose cone, which did not always pop off and allow the parachute (which worked fine) to deploy. If our rocket had not gotten stuck in a tree, I would have liked to make an even smaller nose cone that may have worked better than the larger one.

Overall, we think we did a pretty good job at "building a better rocket." Our first rocket was basically a 2L bottle with fins and duct tape— nothing fancy. Our final rocket was a combination of 2 2L bottles, reinforced cardboard fins and duct tape, a large, circular trash-bag parachute reinforced with duct tape and 8 24in strings, a plastic nose soccer cone trimmed down with 2 v-shaped cuts in order to hopefully allow the parachute to deploy, and of course, "Zayn 2.0" scrawled proudly on a fin (referring to Keana's favorite band member of One Direction.)

This project is definitely recommended to future physics classes, as I am sure they will not only find it amusing, but also helpful in reinforcing their knowledge of physics. :)

Launch Day #5: The Final Launch

Today was our final launch day, and I'm sad to say that we lost our bottle rocket to a tree. That one random tree that's right next to Midkiff. I believe we did around three or four launches; most of them landing with a time of 5.6 seconds or so. Our last launch was seven seconds flat, so we received a C for our final launch. The problem was the same as the last launch day; the cone wouldn't come off. We tried cutting triangles in the cone to make it lighter, but it still stayed on top of the rocket. If the cone came off the top and the parachute deployed, I'm pretty sure we would've gotten a way better time. The best way to make sure the nose cone falls off of the bottle is to put a ball of modeling clay at the tip of the inside of the cone. The modeling clay adds more mass to the rocket and when the bottle reaches apogee and turns upside down, the clay will push the cone off of the rocket, allowing the parachute to deploy. Another factor that affected our rocket was the weather. Not only was it rainy, but it was also very windy. The rain can be bad for rockets with any type of cardboard fins because it bends the fins, which can mess up the rocket's path of flight. The wind can either help or destroy the water bottle rocket. The wind was blowing North at 12 to 13 miles per hour, so all of the rockets, regardless of the angle launched and in what direction, were blown in out of their straight flight paths. The wind can help the rocket if the parachute deploys. With wind this fast, the wind can actually lift and carry the rocket for quite a while, which is how a group in period 6 got around 17 seconds. The wind also messes up the flight and the landing if it carries the rocket onto a building or into a tree, which is what happened to our rocket. So lets just hope that the next time someone launches a rocket, it will be sunny with no wind.

Launch Day #4: Major Fail Water Bottle Rocket

Yesterday after track practice I went to Sports Authority to buy little orange soccer cones for the top of our water bottle rocket. After launching today, we found that the nose cone did make a difference in the flight because the rocket traveled almost twice the height it did on previous launches. The nose cones reduces the rocket's coefficient of friction, therefore allowing the entire rocket to travel as high as the nose cone travels (it's pretty far). Although we achieved greater height compared to our previous launches, we didn't achieve much of a greater time because the parachute didn't deploy. The parachute works, but the nose cone didn't pop off of the top of the bottle to allow the parachute to deploy. As the rocket moves through apogee, the parachute is suppose to push the cone off and deploy, but ours didn't. Maybe it was because the cone was secured to tightly on or was too heavy for the parachute to push it off of the bottle. According to many websites I've searched, the most effective way for the cone to fall off after the rocket reaches it's peak is to have the cone placed on a pedestal made up of inverted fins placed where the cones sits while leaving enough room between the cone and the top of the parachute compartment (If anyone knows what the hell this means or how the hell to do this, please tell me). Besides the parachute deployment, the only other problem with the launch was the trajectory angle and the wind. The angle of trajectory should be positioned as straight up as possible or 90 degrees from the ground (if the ground is flat, not on a slant). In other words straight up towards the sky. A rocket launched straight into the air allows the rocket to reach the maximum altitude, and also allows it to fall the down in almost the same line it was launched it. A direct up and down flight makes it a lot easier for the parachute to deploy properly. Even if the angle of trajectory is slightly slanted, it can affect the pattern of flight for the water bottle rocket. A slanted launch creates more of a projectile, and can cause the bottle to launch more sideways, which can result in the bottle landing on the roof, in a tree, or on the possibly on the other side of the field. The wind also affects the flight pattern of the water bottle rocket. According to the weather forecast, the wind was blowing from the South/South Western position at around 13 mph. The wind can cause the water bottle rocket to rotate, or push the rocket in the direction the wind is blowing. The wind and the angle we launched out rocket at did affect the flight pattern because our rocket GOT STUCK ON THE ROOF. Yep, my heart almost stopped when i saw it land on the roof, but fortunately, Nikki got it down using a ruler. So next time if it is windy, we have to launch from the opposite side of the field from where the wind is blowing and launch the rocket in a straight angle so that it doesn't get stuck anywhere or have an effect on our time (which was 5.4 seconds today).

Nikki's Parent Challenge— helpin' out the ol' multiplier

So here's a real live video of my mother commenting on our blog. Yes, the boys are distracting— that is something we may need to change, haha. :)

Launch Day #3 (not a FAIL)

Today Keana and I launched Zayn 1.1, which was basically Zayn 1.0 with a parachute. Our parachute was basically a plastic bag that we had cut up and secured to the top of our rocket with duct tape, which sounds pretty ghetto, but hey! It worked. We cut the plastic grocery bag so that the handles were split in half and created 4 handles, and cut into the bag so that it would easily deploy. We got about 4.5ish seconds of airtime, which was great, considering we needed 3. But what we found worked even better was the rockets created by Pono and Kory and Rachelle and Shawnie (I think.) We found that there was a direct correlation between rockets that had an elongated body and a nose cone (like Pono and Kory's rocket) and height of the initial launch/length of time in the air. Rachelle and Shawnie's rocket showed us that a well-designed parachute was essential to keeping the rocket up in the air— their multistringed parachute made from one of those white garbage bags was securely attached and tucked under their nose cone, and their rocket stayed in the air for a REALLY long time. Their parachute did not seem to be too heavy, which was good, and they had a longer bottle (joined two bottles together). So Keana and I will make some repairs over the weekend and make our bottle longer, with a nose cone and a well-designed parachute to tuck underneath. Hopefully it deploys well... I have footage (shown below) from our own launch. It's unfortunate that I was really excited while filming and didn't catch all of it, but I'll be sure to next time. We've still got a week left! We can still be awesome! :)

This is our launch... sorry there's not much to it :(

A Step In The Right Direction

So we've decided to change our blog's theme to One Direction, One Rocket, based off of the British band we both like so much, One Direction! :) This photograph shows the switch... http://we-are-excellent.blogspot.com is no longer in existence (unless someone else takes that domain name.) Hopefully we're taking this in the right Direction and we'll continue to apply our physics to our endeavors.

#newblognewdirection

Launch Day #2: Zayn 1.0 (small kine fail)

So today we had to launch two rockets; one with modifications and one without. The modifications we added were fins ( made by me during 6 period in the SPC) out of cardboard. The fins were a good modification, however, due to the pressure, the modified rocket didn't last very long in the air. The air pump was leaking (at least we believe it was because we could hear it coming out of the tube), so although the gauge said there was over 40 psi in the bottle, there probably was a lot less. The less pressure there is in the water bottle rocket, the more difficult it is to displace the water in the bottle. The rocket, named Zayn 1.0, also took off in a sideways fashion (it almost hit me in the face). This could have also been due to the fact that there wasn't enough pressure in the rocket to keep it stable and fly upwards. So to make our rocket better next time, we will use a different air pump (or at least check the damn thing before starting) and hope that it doesn't rain because the mud made the launch pad unstable. Oh, so if you were wondering why we named the rocket Zayn 1.0, it's because Zayn (from British Boy Band One Direction) is really hot and it is impossible for him to fail at anything (except for today, but it wasn't his fault. He's still hot).

#kthanksZAYNISSTILLHOTbai