Mapping Project
Rocket Project
Rocket Exhibition Reflection
After having an incredible two weeks of rocket building, we finally exhibited our projects. I believe the exhibition went very well. We had overall great success and I thought it was interesting to see which rocket styles did the best and which ones were not as successful. I believe our rocket did very well. It went pretty high and luckily our parachute deployed. I would have felt even more successful though, if our parachute had deployed more than two seconds before it hit the ground. I also believe the wind was a factor that may have changed the flight of our rockets not allowing them fly to their best ability. However, it could have helped our parachute deploy too, I am not sure. I am very proud of our rocket model, I think the length, thinness, and cylindrical fin style were perfect. Even our light yoga block cone seemed to be a great idea. However, after our practice launch, it seemed that the wind wasn't able to catch the lip of the cone and lift it off to expose our parachute. So after a couple of tweaks, we decided to leave it up to fate.
If I could do this project again, I think I would change our cone so it would be more reliable after several more launches. I honestly feel our design was one of the best, hence our winning :), so I don't feel there is a design I would want to necessarily “steal”. However, there were several rocket styles that were very creative which I admired and thought were very unique and interesting. I liked Dillion's and Al's, I thought it was incredible how it was so large but at the same time was very light and had an incredible cone that allowed it to fly the furthest. I thought the the rocket “Mary Poppins” had a really unique parachute idea. I think with a little more tweaking with fin styles and the umbrella itself it could have been great. I don't believe there was any component of our rocket that was a “total fail” except for our minor cone troubles. I think everyone including us could have definitely improved on at least one area of their rocket, ours being our cone and maybe the stability of our fins.
The only thing I would do to improve the exhibition would be to do it a little earlier so it wouldn't be so cold and as windy. However, I think it was super duper fun and overall well done. I thoroughly enjoyed the entire process of building the rocket and the exhibition. I think it was a very cool hands-on project. Even though we didn't learn much about rockets before we made them because we are learning about them after our exhibition, I still learned a lot about rocket designs, patience, perseverance, and refinement!
If I could do this project again, I think I would change our cone so it would be more reliable after several more launches. I honestly feel our design was one of the best, hence our winning :), so I don't feel there is a design I would want to necessarily “steal”. However, there were several rocket styles that were very creative which I admired and thought were very unique and interesting. I liked Dillion's and Al's, I thought it was incredible how it was so large but at the same time was very light and had an incredible cone that allowed it to fly the furthest. I thought the the rocket “Mary Poppins” had a really unique parachute idea. I think with a little more tweaking with fin styles and the umbrella itself it could have been great. I don't believe there was any component of our rocket that was a “total fail” except for our minor cone troubles. I think everyone including us could have definitely improved on at least one area of their rocket, ours being our cone and maybe the stability of our fins.
The only thing I would do to improve the exhibition would be to do it a little earlier so it wouldn't be so cold and as windy. However, I think it was super duper fun and overall well done. I thoroughly enjoyed the entire process of building the rocket and the exhibition. I think it was a very cool hands-on project. Even though we didn't learn much about rockets before we made them because we are learning about them after our exhibition, I still learned a lot about rocket designs, patience, perseverance, and refinement!
Physics PageNewton’s 1st Law: An object at rest will remain at rest, and a moving object will continue moving in a straight line with constant speed, if and only if the net force acting on that object is zero.
Our rocket stayed at rest until we pulled the strings to the launch pad, allowing the force of water and carbon dioxide to send our rocket through the air. In the air, it continued to move until it was acted upon by air resistance and friction and these forces increased dramatically once our parachute deployed. Then, our rocket crashed down to earth and stopped once it hit the ground. Gravity was the main force that brought our rocket down and ground was another force that finally stopped the rocket. This law exhibited how our rocket was able to fly and slow to a stop. These forces in the air also helped pull our nose cone off and deploy our parachute. Newton’s 2nd Law: The acceleration of an object is proportional to the net force and inversely proportional to the mass of the object being accelerated (F=ma). Newton's 2nd law was exhibited in or launching related to the weight and force of our flying rocket. With our rocket being an average 0.5 lbs/0.227 kg and the force of the carbon dioxide and water pressure it was able to accelerate and fly high. If our rocket was heavier however, it would have taken more force and a higher pressure to allow the rocket to reach the same height as our own. Newton’s 3rd Law: All forces come in pairs. These forces are equal in strength and opposite in direction. Equal and opposite force was involved in the take off of our rocket through water pressure and carbon dioxide in our chamber as well as just the air molecules in and outside of the bottle. When the chamber was hooked up to the launcher, there was an equal and opposite force being exhibited in the bottle. However, when we pulled the string out of the launch pad, one of the opposite forces pulling the rocket down (the plug) and also keeping the bottle stable on the pad was released, allowing the high pressure Co2 in the bottle to escape causing the upwards force of high pressure Co2 to push the rocket into the air. |
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