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).
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
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).
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OK so I was pretty stoked that we got our rocket down from the roof~ I was freaking out because I REALLY did not want to spend another seventh period BUILDING the darn thing. Good post 'Ana on the weather conditions and the trajectory angle— I do think our *fail launch had more to do with the weather conditions rather than our rocket's angle, but these were both important variables that we should work on. :)
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