NotesHere are pictures of some notes we took in class. We covered a lot of different topics of science in this class, from physics to minerals, earth science and the history of earth.
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Rocket ReflectionThe exhibition was really awesome and I got to see some pretty creative rockets. The rocket idea of using a helium balloon that one team did was really creative and I think they would have won the competition if there hadn’t been for the wind. I would like to explore the balloon idea a little more and see if there was a better way to execute it. I felt really good with our rocket, Mary Poppins, because even though my team only got 33d place, it was really exhilarating seeing our rocket on the launch pad and getting it ready to be fired into the sky. I am a little sad with the results but I think I was almost expecting that we wouldn’t do very well. Our design of using the umbrella and a pipe to attach it to the main pressure chamber, made our rocket more heavier than it probably needed to be and was a guarantee that it wouldn’t go as high as it could have. Also when we first launched our rocket’s PSI was up to 80, but on the scond launch after that one, we took the PSI up to 110. Our second launch was more successful than the first one and I believe that the change in PSI did affect that, pushing our rocket further up with higher opposite pressure. I think we also would have had better results if it hadn’t been for the weather on exhibition day. It was really windy and most of the rockets were affected by it even before they were launched off. Our umbrella was meant to open with the wind pushing the canopy part of the umbrella up and out to catch the wind from underneath and keep it from falling downwards too quickly. Unfortunately the wind coming from the south was pushing on the rocket and the umbrella was not able to open.
I don’t think I would change anything about our rocket. But maybe if we ever did this project again and had more time to work on it, I think my team would spend on a lot more time working on the umbrella and seeing what other designs would work better or worse. Also I think we would try to make our rocket much lighter and how we could attach the umbrella to the rocket better without using a heavy pipe like we did. But I guess when I think about it, I would probably change the fins we had. Ours were pretty big and glued on to the whole main pressure chamber. I don’t think we needed that big of fins and we could have saved a lot more weight by making them smaller. |
Rockets
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Physics Behind the RocketsNewton’s First Law
An object at rest stays at rest and an object in motion stays in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon bye an unbalanced force. With our rocket we had a lot of unbalanced forces acting on it. For instance when it was flying through the air the rocket put more force on the air and gravity then it put back on the rocket intern letting it fly up into the air. Once the rocket stopped being propelled and air and gravity had the same force acting on it as rocket, it stopped flying up in the air. Then falling down to the ground because gravity was the bigger force. The rocket did not stay in motion at the same speed because of all the out side forces acting upon it, like wind, gravity, and air friction. To conclude the rocket goes the directing with the less force acting on it. Making it go up, down, right and left in different circumstances. Newton’s Second 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)”. Basically this means that the force is equal to mass multiplied by acceleration. This law applies to rocketry by saying that the larger the force given to the rocket, the faster it will accelerate. So for our rockets, the higher the PSI of CO2 is, the higher it will go and the faster it will accelerate. The force that makes the rocket go up is the pressure that is collected in the bottle of our rocket by pumping the CO2 into the (half filled) water bottle. This pressure accelerates the gases one direction, and the rocket in the other. The acceleration is also effected by the mass of the rocket. A small lightweight rocket will accelerate much faster than a large, heavy rocket. All in all, Newton’s second law tells us why our rocket goes at a certain speed and a certain height. Newton’s Third Law Newton’s third law describes that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. In the case of our rockets, they are able to be launched into the air because the water and carbonized air exerts an opposite and equal force on the bottle when the trigger is released. This in turn, boosts the rocket with the energy from the ground, up into the sky. |