Aim: The Aim of my goal is to see how far my bottle rocket travels and how long it can stay in the air/ measure air time.
Equipment: The equipment we used for this experiment were an empty bottle, some cardboard pieces, some sheets of paper, hot glue, and some tape.
Method: The method for creating these rockets is simple just grab the equipment listed above and make a cone with either the cardboard or paper and put this on the bottom of the bottle and create some like right angle triangles with the cardboard as the wings.
Results: Include distance/ time recordings, your speed calculation, and picture.
| Distance travelled (m) | Time taken (s) | Speed calculation (ms-1) |
| The data is not available | The data is not available | The data is not available |
Discussion:
- What are the forces acting on your bottle rocket?
- Are they balanced/ unbalanced?
- What is net force and how does this relate to the forces acting on your bottle rocket?
- What are the strength of forces acting on it at different stages?
- How do the forces acting on the bottle rocket affect the motion of the bottle rocket at different points?
- Why do you think results may vary in the class?
What are the forces acting on your bottle rocket?
The forces that acted on my rocket were air resistance, and gravity which affects the rocket’s trajectory and air time.
Are they balanced/unbalanced
The rocket was balanced because of the wings on the side of the bottle
What is net force and how does this relate to the forces acting on your bottle rocket?
Net force is the overall single force resulting from all individual forces combined
And this relates to my rocket by calculating how long it stays in the air, what it does to the bottle rocket in general, and how fast the rocket can go.
What are the strength of forces acting on it at different stages?
During lift off, air pressure being released is a good force because it helps launch the rocket with velocity and acceleration and with less air resistance from the cone it also allows the rocket to stay in the air at a cruising speed.
How do the forces acting on the bottle rocket affect the motion of the bottle rocket at different points?
The different forces can act on the rocket in a positive way and a negative way
- The rocket has to have low air resistance to keep its altitude and velocity in the air
- Because the weight of the bottle is too light the drag naturally pushes the rocket back causing the rocket to gain more drag/lose more air time
- At the point of launching the rocket it should naturally have some type of air resistance due to change of pressure and speed because it would need to have more time to actually launch and gather more speed as it goes but because the materials of the rocket were to light it had too much drag.
Why do you think results may vary in the class?
I think that results in class for the launch of the bottle rockets differ is because everyone had different designs which led to them naturally having different weighted rockets or different shaped which can lead to others having different time in air or length like if it someone had too much cardboard it would drop instantly, or if one didn’t have enough they wouldn’t launch smoothly as drag would push it backwards acting against it
Conclusion:
- How was your bottle rocket successful/unsuccessful and why (relate your answer to physics ideas)?
- How could you improve?
My bottle rocket was successful because it launched further than what i had hoped for which led me to having higher hopes in the future if i were to get into being a scientist leading to other possibilities or help me understand things.
I think i could have improved by putting more effort into the aerodynamics and seeing what could have been done to change the weight and seeing if the weight change could help the rocket get less drag in the air.