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.
That's a pretty good time (6 sec) for your rocket to be in the air! It's pretty close to Pono and Kory's rocket (didn't they have like 7-something seconds?) Anyway, I think cutting holes in your parachute might work better if you have a bigger parachute and slits instead of holes. Holes might be too big and actually cause your rocket to plummet rather than float on the wind. I think it's the same concept behind those banners they have at Pearlridge and Ala Moana with the shopping center logo on them— they have small slits cut in them so that the wind can carry through without ripping them apart or creating too much stress. Having slits actually creates slack in the material. Anyways, good job! Keana and I were actually thinking of making slits in the material too :)
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