10/06/26
We made bottle rockets from plastic bottles and various other materials, filled half way with water and pumped air into the rest, launching them into the sky.
Aim: To design and create a bottle rocket with the most velocity.
Equipment:
Plastic bottle
Cardboard
Paper
Hot glue
Tape
Stopwatch
Tape measure
Pen
Something to launch the rocket from.
Method:
1. Design your bottle rocket and list materials needed.
2. Build your rocket and fill halfway with water.
3. Set up the the rocket ready to launch, and put a tape measure across the ground.
4. pump air into the rocket, and using the stopwatch, how long it takes for the rocket to launch and land, measure the distance it goes as well.
5. Record results, find the speed and do a scientific write-up.
Results:
Distance – 1.5 metres
Time – 0.6 seconds
Speed – 2.5ms-1
The forces acting on the bottle rocket are gravity, air resistance, support, and a push force from being launched. These forces are unbalanced, as the push force is stronger then the air resistance, making the rocket go forwards, the push force is stronger as the rocket is launched, but slowly reduces as air resistances becomes stronger. The support force is bigger as the rocket launches into the air, but the gravitational pull becomes stronger and the rocket lowers to the ground. Results Mary vary in the class due to different designs and shapes of our rockets.
My group’s bottle rocket was unsuccessful as it only went a very short distance in a short amount of time. it barely had any time in the air and began to fall almost immediately after launching. We could improve the rocket by giving it stronger fins and making the rocket more sturdy, which would help the rocket to be launched further and stay in the air for a longer amount of time.