In Science we have been working on the topic about how forces and motion work, so one of the things we did were bottle rockets where we basically got to design the bottles and test the speed and the distance in the end. The aim of the experiment was to test how far and how fast the different bottles would launch.
The Equipment we used to track the bottle rockets were stop watches that were timed by ten different people, and a measuring tape on the ground. In order to be able to launch the bottle rocket up we used pressure from the bike pump, so we filled the bottle up about half way with water and pumped air into the bottle with the bike pump which built up pressure inside causing it to launch. Pressure is how much force is being put on an object in one area, a smaller area = more pressure and more force = more pressure.
A net force is a sum of all forces acting on an object and a way that this relates to the forces acting on the bottles are because a force can change a lot of things like an objects speed, travelling distance, and the shape of an object. The strength of forces acting on the bottle at different times is the push force at the start due to the amount of pressure built up in the bottle. Followed up by the friction/air resistance and a support lift ending off with the gravity pull/ weight. I think that a reason why the results may vary in the class is because the design itself can change the distance or the speed when the bottle rocket launches.
The results were that we got an average of 0.056 seconds and a distance of 1.5 meters. My groups rocket was unsuccessful due to the fact that it barely launched, but the reason why I think it didn’t launch up was because of the structure of the bottle being pretty weak and also the cardboard on the sides were falling off. I think that we could improve it by getting a sturdy bottle and cutting out the pieces to actually be long enough and to stick them on properly.