Year 10 Forces and Motion Assessment Task – Bottle Rockets
Include the following in your bottle rocket blog post
Aim: The aim of the bottle rocket was to make a rocket that is capable of flying and the aim was to blast the rocket the furthest.
Equipment: Allowed only one 1.5L bottle and if you need more then you have to bring your own, cardboard, scissors, tape.
Method: Use one 1.5L bottle then cut out triangle shaped fins then hot glue them to the bottle, add some water.
Results: Include distance/ time recordings, your speed calculation, and picture.
| Distance travelled (m) | Time taken (s) | Speed calculation (ms-1) |
| 18m
52.1 24.8 13.4 46.5 |
1.11
3.4 1.64 2.93 2.13 |
16.22
15.32 15.12 4.57 21.83 |
Discussion:
The forces acting on my bottle rocket were Thrust, Weight, Drag, and Lift. They are unbalanced as the rocket is blasted making one bigger than the other, at all of the times the bottle is in the air the forces are unbalanced as it goes in one direction either up or down and doesnt go straight. The net force is 415g this relates to how much force the forces are doing. The forces acting affect the motion by making it go in a different direction making it fly shorter or further. Results may vary because different people used different things on their rocket and had different amounts of water or added extra things like rocks or more. The results also may vary because of the various fins used or extra items added like golf balls and more.
Conclusion:
I think the rocket was unsuccessful because our fins broke after the first flight. The reason for this is that when we were building the rocket the fins were the wrong away around and instead of restarting we just turned the fins around which make it unstable resulting in them falling apart. Apart from that the fins were also shaped badly aswell which made the bottle not fly far. We could improve it by remaking new fins and researching about fins to make sure we use the best ones. Next time we could also research more about the bottle and things to do to make it go the furthest.