Water Bottle Rocket Design Brief
The rocket MUST be built using the following materials: 2 liter carbonated bottle, and have a 2.2 cm mouth/nozzle opening.
The rocket CAN be built with the following materials: nose cone, decoration, fins, adhesives, and recovery system(s).
The rocket CANNOT be built with the following materials: super glue or hot glue on the main body bottle, per-fabricated part made for that purpose, and anything made of metal.
Other requirements: the rocket must fit on the launcher, the rocket may not come apart during the launch (or upon impact), the bottles integrity cannot be compromised in any way, cannot paint or place anything on the inside of the bottle, don't cut the main body of the bottle,
The rocket CAN be built with the following materials: nose cone, decoration, fins, adhesives, and recovery system(s).
The rocket CANNOT be built with the following materials: super glue or hot glue on the main body bottle, per-fabricated part made for that purpose, and anything made of metal.
Other requirements: the rocket must fit on the launcher, the rocket may not come apart during the launch (or upon impact), the bottles integrity cannot be compromised in any way, cannot paint or place anything on the inside of the bottle, don't cut the main body of the bottle,
What we did:
We made Water Bottle Rockets! It was very challenging but my group had fun with it!
We went outside multiple times during the course of 2-3 weeks, and while we were outside we would "test-launch" our rockets. In between the times we would test launch our rockets, we had time to make changes to our rockets. When we test launched we could get the amount of water we wanted to put into to our rockets and we could change the amount we used each time.
Each group was made up of three people, and each person of the group was responsible to bring in the materials needed. My group planned out everything we needed to bring in and then assigned what each one of us should bring.
We made Water Bottle Rockets! It was very challenging but my group had fun with it!
We went outside multiple times during the course of 2-3 weeks, and while we were outside we would "test-launch" our rockets. In between the times we would test launch our rockets, we had time to make changes to our rockets. When we test launched we could get the amount of water we wanted to put into to our rockets and we could change the amount we used each time.
Each group was made up of three people, and each person of the group was responsible to bring in the materials needed. My group planned out everything we needed to bring in and then assigned what each one of us should bring.
What we Learned:
Our group learned a lot from making water bottle rockets! We learned from our mistakes and how to fix them, which is important.
We learned that everything needs to be put on the rocket very carefully but also enough to make sure it stays on the rocket! -During one launch the nose cone came off of our rocket. The impact from the hit on the ground made our fins come loose and became bent and misshaped.
We noticed that the less water we put in our rocket, the higher it would go. But that you also needed enough to shoot up!
Our parachute never opened, it did come out of the nose cone but wouldn't open. The first couple of times it wouldn't come out of the nose cone because the strings were tangled.
Our group learned a lot from making water bottle rockets! We learned from our mistakes and how to fix them, which is important.
We learned that everything needs to be put on the rocket very carefully but also enough to make sure it stays on the rocket! -During one launch the nose cone came off of our rocket. The impact from the hit on the ground made our fins come loose and became bent and misshaped.
We noticed that the less water we put in our rocket, the higher it would go. But that you also needed enough to shoot up!
Our parachute never opened, it did come out of the nose cone but wouldn't open. The first couple of times it wouldn't come out of the nose cone because the strings were tangled.
My group and I were trying to make a parachute for our rocket. This was just a white trash bag and we were cutting it to a circle just to test! (We didn't use this parachute on our 'final' rocket, but we used one similar!
This was my groups 'final' rocket. The fins are made of cardboard covered in foam paper. Our parachute was shaped and sized based off of the 'testing' parachute in a picture above, it was made of a plastic table cloth. We used yarn as strings to hold the parachute to the rocket. The nose cone (can't see in picture) was part of another bottle that we cut and used string to remain attached to the bottle. The main body of the bottle was made from a Pepsi bottle. And lots of duct tape was used to attach various parts to the rocket!
Concepts Learned:
We learned multiple concepts that were behind designing and building water bottle rockets. Such as: Newton's 1st Law, Newton's 2nd Law, Newton's 3rd Law, static friction, sliding friction, fluid friction, and gravity!
Newton's First Law of Motion- An object at rest tends to stay at rest, unless acted on by an opposing force. An object in motion tends to stay in motion, unless acted on by an opposing force.
Example: A rider on a skate-board is thrown forward when the skate-board comes to a quick stop because your body was “used” to going in the same direction so when the skateboard stops your body “try’s” to keep going forward.
Newton's Second Law of Motion-
Acceleration is produced when a force acts on a mass. The greater the mass (of the object being accelerated), the greater the amount of force is needed (to accelerate the object.)
Newton's Third Law of Motion-
For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.
Example: A rockets action is to push down onto the ground with its engines, the reaction is the ground pushes the rocket upwards with an equal force.
Static Friction- The force required to make an object at rest begin to move. Static friction is always greater than kinetic friction because fewer areas of the object are in contact with a surface once a body is in motion. Molecules are not in contact long enough to form attractions to each other. (Kinetic friction is the resistance to motion of an object moving across a surface.)
Sliding Friction- Sliding friction is a form of Kinetic friction. (Kinetic friction is the resistance to motion of an object moving across a surface.) Example: When you push a book across a table, the resistance is sliding friction. In general, sliding friction is always more than rolling friction. (One reason is that the contact area between a wheel and a surface is very small and brief.)
Fluid Friction- A resistance of pouring a liquid. Friction that opposes the motion when an object moves through a fluid.
Gravity- a force of attraction that exists between every pair of objects in the universe. The gravitational attraction exerted by the Earth is what causes objects to have weight and to fall when dropped. The greater the mass of an object, the greater the gravitational force it applies. Example: a planet's gravitational acceleration toward the Sun was exactly equal to its forward motion, so it kept spinning in a circle indefinitely, "falling" and escaping equally.
We learned multiple concepts that were behind designing and building water bottle rockets. Such as: Newton's 1st Law, Newton's 2nd Law, Newton's 3rd Law, static friction, sliding friction, fluid friction, and gravity!
Newton's First Law of Motion- An object at rest tends to stay at rest, unless acted on by an opposing force. An object in motion tends to stay in motion, unless acted on by an opposing force.
Example: A rider on a skate-board is thrown forward when the skate-board comes to a quick stop because your body was “used” to going in the same direction so when the skateboard stops your body “try’s” to keep going forward.
Newton's Second Law of Motion-
Acceleration is produced when a force acts on a mass. The greater the mass (of the object being accelerated), the greater the amount of force is needed (to accelerate the object.)
Newton's Third Law of Motion-
For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.
Example: A rockets action is to push down onto the ground with its engines, the reaction is the ground pushes the rocket upwards with an equal force.
Static Friction- The force required to make an object at rest begin to move. Static friction is always greater than kinetic friction because fewer areas of the object are in contact with a surface once a body is in motion. Molecules are not in contact long enough to form attractions to each other. (Kinetic friction is the resistance to motion of an object moving across a surface.)
Sliding Friction- Sliding friction is a form of Kinetic friction. (Kinetic friction is the resistance to motion of an object moving across a surface.) Example: When you push a book across a table, the resistance is sliding friction. In general, sliding friction is always more than rolling friction. (One reason is that the contact area between a wheel and a surface is very small and brief.)
Fluid Friction- A resistance of pouring a liquid. Friction that opposes the motion when an object moves through a fluid.
Gravity- a force of attraction that exists between every pair of objects in the universe. The gravitational attraction exerted by the Earth is what causes objects to have weight and to fall when dropped. The greater the mass of an object, the greater the gravitational force it applies. Example: a planet's gravitational acceleration toward the Sun was exactly equal to its forward motion, so it kept spinning in a circle indefinitely, "falling" and escaping equally.