Pictures

Calculations

Materials, Procedure, Results and Conclusion

Materials:

-               Two one liter bottles (1.00 Each)

-               Cardboard (varies)

-               Tape (.50)

-               Scissors (6.00)

-               A doctor’s mask (1.50)

-               Soft cloth (varies)

-               One egg (1.00)

-               A Easter egg cap (varies)

Procedure: 

First we got two 1-liter soda bottles, dumped out the soda inside and cut one of them in half. Next, with the still intact bottle, we let the inside dry and started to cut three medium sized rocket fins out of cardboard lying around my house. Once cut out, we used duck tape to reinforce the strength of the cardboard so there was no bending in the fins. Once the fins were covered in duck tape we attached them on each third of the bottom half of our non cut bottle so they were equally spaced and all at the same height. We then designed our fins for aesthetic purposes. Now to the bottle that we cut in half initially. With this bottle we disposed of the lower part and just used the top part with the cap on it. We found a doctor’s paper mask lying around my house and packed it with stuffing to protect the egg we are going to place in it later. Once the mask and the top of the bottle near the cap are padded with soft cloth it is now time to place the egg. We place the egg inside the padded doctor’s mask and the padding near the cap of the bottle. To secure the egg and make sure there is no space to move when launched, we pull the string tightly through the opening of the bottle then screw the cap on over it and surrounded it with tape. Finally, we added an Easter egg on top of the cap and taped it down hoping to distribute the force throughout the bottle on impact instead of directly on the egg. That is how you build our rocket!

Results:

Although our rocket did not perform as well as we would have liked it was not a total disaster at all. When we launched our rocket I was not surprised at the large amount of height our rocket got. We purposely limited material so that our rocket would be lightweight and aerodynamic forcing it to go higher. However, there was a tradeoff with this technique. When we launched our rocket it decided to turn sideways about three fourths of the way to its max height. Furthermore, the compartment holding the egg did separate but a little bit too early. Finally, along with many others, the top portion of our rocket did flip and come down but the parachute did not deploy which lead to a high speed crash. Due to a combination of the height and the parachute not deploying, the result was a horrible splattering of our poor egg. As far as factors during our launch I would say they were minimal. It was very sunny with only a slight breeze. As far as user error I accidently pushed our rocket down on the launching mechanism without unlocking it first! Luckily our teacher fixed it and I do not believe it had a large impact on the launch overall. Our rocket separated perfectly but our only equipment malfunction was the parachute not deploying.

Conclusion:

As far as making adjustments to make our rocket better, there were a few. First off I would change the weight of our rocket. I would add more tape or cardboard to the fins in order to ensure that our rocket stayed vertical in the air rather than flipping sideways. Adding a more aerodynamic tip instead of an Easter egg shell my also be a benefit to this. Making larger fins could have helped our rocket cut through the air better and therefor go a little higher. As far as weather I believe the conditions were pretty much perfect on our launch day. It was sunny and there was little to no breeze to interfere with the launch. Other things I would change involve the capsule portion of our rocket. I would of course add more cushioning so our egg did not crash when it hit the ground. As far as the parachute, I would either make the parachute slightly smaller or have a mechanism that forces it to come out of the capsule and deploy successfully.