FINAL BLOG

When we were first introduced to this project, a lot of people were really excited to get started on working on the model of their water bottle rockets. We used different websites to help us in the design of our rockets. We sort of used the following link, http://tclauset.org/21_BtlRockets/BTL.html to help begin our design. We didn’t really follow exactly what it showed. We ended up using only one 2L bottle for our rocket instead of lengthening it using two bottles. When we did our first launch with no modifications of any kind, our rocket stayed in the air for 5.5 seconds. For that launch, we used 500 mL of water for our fuel and used a PSI of 60. We were quite satisfied with our first launch. For our second launch, we just added a nose cone to our bottle. We also used 500 mL of water and kept the PSI at 60. Our rocket stayed in the air for exactly 6 seconds. For our third launch we need to use a parachute. We created our parachute from a GLAD trash bag. We cut the corner of the trash bag and used the straps of the trash bag to connect the trash bag to the bottle. We put our parachute over our nose cone. We weren’t completely sure how to effectively place the parachute beneath the nose cone and make it deploy. We thought that if the parachute was over the nose cone, the rocket would still have the same flight going up and on its way down the parachute would catch air and hold the rocket in the air longer. Our launch only lasted just past 3 seconds. The parachute didn’t work. For our next launch we thought that we should add fins to better balance the rocket. The fins and the nose cone worked well for us because on the last day to launch we reached 7.7 seconds. The pressure and amount of water also helped a lot. We used 800 mL of water and a PSI of 80. If we were to use less water and less PSI, the rocket most likely wouldn’t have gone so high and wouldn’t have stayed in the air that long.

            Overall, this project was good for everyone. If you were very attentive and paid attention to detail and design, you most likely got a decent if not perfect grade on your rocket. Even if you didn’t get a good grade, you were able to get hands on experience and learning about how water bottle rockets work and how to make it more effective. This project also taught us to be more responsible for our work. If we individually didn’t get our work done, like our blogs, then we would most likely not end up with the grade we want. This project encouraged us to stay on top of our studies and be more focused on what we were supposed to do. I thoroughly liked this project. It was enjoyably entertaining and very beneficial educationally.  

Final Launch

Today was our final launch day for our water bottle rockets. Everyones goal was to initially make the 10 second mark for the 10 extra points. The weather was a major factor that prevented us from having a very successful launching. The strong winds and the rain made it hard for our rocket to be very successful in reaching the 10 second mark. Our first launch wasn't very bad. We got 7.7 seconds I believe, however, our rocket went over towards 'Akahi dining hall. We tried another two times but was never able to reach 7 seconds again or 10 seconds because of the weather conditions. While setting up our last launch, there was a big gust of wind that flew our nose cone off the top of our bottle rocket and our parachute also flew off as well. Our bottle rocket basically fell apart before we could actually have a chance to launch it again to try for the 10 second mark. Our main problem was getting our parachute to deploy. Because the rain was getting everything wet, our parachute was unable to deploy in flight. Today's weather was really not helping anyone in our class period I think, so after our last launch we were a bit disappointed but not completely disappointed by the results. 7.7 seconds is not a really bad time, it could have been better but it also could have been worse. Our blogpost includes this video of our best launch of 7.7 seconds.

Second Launch

Friday was the second launch day of our bottle rocket. The first launch was a launch of a bottle with no modifications. Our time was 5 seconds. It was surprising to us because we weren't expecting it to stay in the air that long without anything being done to it. Our second launch we did we put a cone on our water bottle rocket. With that modification, we added another second to our time making it 6 seconds. For the next modifications, we added a parachute to the bottle. We taped it over the cone. The flight with the parachute modification lasted just over 3 seconds long. We however, did not get that on video because it didn't work for some reason. We need to make some changes to the rocket. We are thinking of cutting holes into the parachute to make it work just a little better or possibly figuring out a way to put the parachute in the cone and making it deploy in the air.


This is the video of our launch with the cone.

First Launch

We learned a lot today during our first launch. We learned how to use the launch materials that are provided in class which we are going to be using throughout the remainder of this project. We didn't use any modifiers such as fins, nose cones, or parachutes for this first launch just so we could try out the materials. We learned the basics first. We first filled our bottle up with 500 mL of water which is used as our fuel, then we secured the bottle onto the launcher. We pumped air into our rocket using a pump, and then finally pulled the string to release the launcher which allowed the bottle to be released into the air. After watching a few groups before us, we decided to make our first launch at about 45 PSI. However, we didn't know how much pressure there was in the bottle so we released it after we couldn't pump any more. After watching the playback of our launch, our first try came out to the bottle staying in the air for maybe 4 or 5 seconds. The wind was a major contributor today because of the amount of wind that was felt. The wind caused most if not all of the classes bottles to to drift far away from the launching spot. Above is the video of our first launch.

Blogpost #1

This week, Mr. Blake introduced the bottle rocket project to us. We had to start researching the project and post informational sites that could help the rest of the class. The site we found explained what water bottle rockets were and how to make a launch pad. We looked at other groups sites that were listed and found one with great instructions on how to make a rocket with a parachute. This website included a very concise list of materials and detailed steps that are easy to follow. The first step of course is to create the body of the rocket out of two 2L bottles. One bottle is cut on both ends to create a cylinder, and the second one is cut to create the fuselage that will be used to store the parachute. The parachute is especially important because it will allow our rocket to have a higher chance of remaining in the air for ten seconds. We plan to continue to research to find additional ways that will improve our rocket’s air time.