Final Blog Post

During the course of this bottle rocket project, we've experienced many ups and downs. The first day of launching was a day of testing variables such as psi and fuel. That day, we tried 40 psi because that was the given value and the most psi that my body possibly pump into the rocket. Regarding the fuel, we discovered that 500 mL was not the prime amount of water, but that a value greater than that, 700 mL was better. That day, our best launch time was 4.5 seconds and our worst was 4 seconds. The 2nd day of launching, we made some modifications to our rocket. We added a nose cone, by simply taping the cone to the top of our rocket. We also added thin fins. This day was a day of realization. We realized that our nose cone was too heavy because with our nose cone, it lasted 3.7 seconds with 700 mL and 3.1 with 800 mL. Then we removed the nose cone and the rocket stayed in the air for 4.8 seconds with 700 mL. For all launches we used 40 psi. That day we realized that our nose cone needed to be lighter and that we needed stronger fins. For our 3rd launch, it was required that we have a parachute. On this day, we added a parachute that was made of a long plastic trash bag. We also added stronger fins and cut our nose cone so that it was lighter. On this day, our worst launch was 4.2 seconds with 840mL.  Our best launch for the day lasted 5.9 seconds with only 500mL. All the launches that day were released with 40psi. For the first launches with the parachute we did not use the orange nose cone because of technical problems and our parachute was made of a trash bag and a lightweight hemp string. This was an experiment day. We experimented with our first rocket with a parachute, after the day was over we decided that we needed to improve on the parachute so that it would stay airborne longer. We used a different trash bag and to opt on on the nose cone. Launch day 4 was the first day adverse conditions. It made us a little nervous because we weren't sure how our rocket would work in this weather. The wind definitely played a huge role this day. We only needed to launch once because we made the 5 second requirement. The official recorded time was 10.2 seconds! We were on track.... not for long. Thursday the 8th was the final launch day and the minimum time was 10 seconds. Unfortunately, our rocket lasted a mere 4.0 seconds in the air. We launched multiple times but there no success. Our rocket shot up twice but three of the five attempts did not. We believe it was technical and human error. The rocket design had issues because our parachute did not deploy, the fuel also leaked and the strings connecting the rocket and parachute had detached on multiple occasions. It was sad and disappointing day because the previous surpassed passed our goal time for the project, yet on the day it really mattered it did not work out as planned.

Video Reaction: See video for our reactions to this project

Launch 5: Cinco de "Fayo"

video 1

video2

video 3

video 4

video 5

video 5.5

Our fifth and final launch day did not go as planned, hence the title of today's post. In all our launches did not meet the day's requirements or were up to our standards, sadly. However, we were able to get footage on our multiple attempts from the day. It was a bitter-sweet type of day but we learned a lot! On our first recorded launch in the air we had kept the same type of rocket design as launch day 4. Although, we followed the same plans our time decreased by 9 seconds! Our first attempt had a 40psi and 850mL water amount but the airtime was only 1.75 seconds, not very ideal when the goal for the day was 10 seconds (video #1). We were a little disappointed and after a few adjustments believed our next attempt would be a success, it was not. On the second we tried with the same plan and hoped it would work as it did before. The second launch was only slightly better with a recorded 4.06 seconds! (video #2) We thought we were going to improve.... It became worse. On the third and fourth try (video #3 and #4), the airtime was not even recordable. This was because our rockets would not launch properly from the launching pad. It was a prime example of human error. Either the set-up may have been effected or it was a defected trial. Both of the time the release clip did not let go of the bottle and the bottle did not launch. Instead, the bottle wither fell to it's side or on the ground of the launching pad. Both attempts had 40psi and about 850mL. After three launches our parachute had detached so we fixed it by applying more duct tape to the strings where they were connected to the bottle and corners of the chute. We went back on the field and set it up again. This was our last and final chance to launch (video #5 and #5.5), we even rolled our parachute in the hopes that it would have deploy effectively. Again, it was not what we had anticipated. By the time we launched our fifth attempt for the day, class was over. There was nothing we could do to improve our time. This project was a good learning experience for the two of us! One important lesson was the fact that you cannot rely on one sole design and expect it to work 100% of the time. Today we used the same rocket design as the other day and found ourselves not nearly as successful or happy nonetheless. Maybe it was the horrible weather or maybe it was the launching equipment but one thing we did learn was to work as a team and class. Even though we weren't able to reach our desired goal, everyone supported and suggested ways to improve our rocket the whole way through. What more can a group ask for from their classmates? Even though statistically today was a fail, the perseverance we had outnumbered any record or grade for the day! We may have been upset we'll always remember day #5 of rocket launching!

*one sad group member after a bad launch day with rocket after 5 attempts*

Launch Cuatro: Our water rockets are extra watery today

For our 4th rocket launch, we experienced extreme conditions! Heavy wind and rain and sloshy grounds created an exciting and fun 4th day of launching. The top photo is what Konia field looked like in this crazy weather, extreme, but really cool. The top video is just a video of the surrounding weather. The bottom video is of our launch, our most successful one yet! Opposed to our last launch, we made 2 changes. The first is that we made a new parachute that was of greater area than our previous parachute. The other change is that we used our nose cone for this launch. We simply placed the nose cone on the rocket right before its launch and the cone easily fell off so that the parachute could deploy at the apex of the launch. For this launch, we used 40 psi, like all previous times and 850 mL of water. We were very happy with our 10.2 second launch time. We would've tried to launch again, but the parachute broke and it was too rainy to apply tape to anything. So we helped Amber and we were glad to see that she met the 5 second requirement. Yay!!! I think the wind was a benefit to our launch because it looked like it carried the rocket further and longer. The rocket traveled int he west direction, so I am assuming that is the way the wind was blowing. Many peoples parachutes did not deploy today. Perhaps this is because the rain made the plastic bags stick to each other or heavy in the holding compartment so it did not deploy as planned. Today was definitely the most fun launch of launches so far!

Launch 3: Para-"Shoot" for the Stars!

Video #1

Video #2

Video #3

On Friday we launched for the third time this week! It was a really interesting and very fun day in physics. We did three attempts with our fin and parachute modifications. The idea was to have a parachute made of a thin trashbag, a lightweight hemp string, an orange nose cone and an additional bottle that was cut ot hold in the parachute. Our rocket design was simple, yet we found it very effective. However, on the field we decided not to use the orange nose cone because of design problems. On the first attempt (video #1) we used 700mL of water fuel and 40psi. After launch we recorded a time of 5.3 seconds. Video #2 was the second flight there was 500 mL of water and 40psi. This was our most successful launch thus far, it was in air for 5.9 seconds. Lastly, video #3 had a water amount of 800mL and about 40psi. This was our least successful run of the day only lasting 4.2 seconds. Upon the completion of the day's launches we concluded that we are going to go back to the rocket drawing board to improve on the elements we currently have. One component we would like to improve on is the parachute. We want to have a wider chute that will catch the wind better and stay airborne longer. Today was fun and we cannot wait until the next launch day! We are already half way to the 10 second goal :D

Launch Dos: New Discoveries

These 5 videos are 2 attempts just bottle with different amounts of fuel (water) in them and the next 3 are 3 attempts with modifications (fins and nose cone and just fins). For our first launch with no modifications we used 500 mL of water and the launch lasted 3.8 seconds. The 2nd launch we used 700 mLs of water and it lasted about 4.8 seconds. Our modifications included 3 fins made out of card stock and a nose cone. For the nose cone we just cut off the square part of a regular small orange cone. The first time we launched with modifications, we used 700 mL again and it lasted 3.7 seconds. Then we tried again with 800 mL and it lasted 3.1 seconds. We decided that the nose cone was too heavy and that it was making our rocket worse because the bottle would come down, nose down, faster than it would with no nose cone. So we took it off and just went with the fins and filled the rocket with 700 mL again. Without the cone it lasted about 4.8 seconds. For all the launches, we used 40 psi. From these launches, we have discovered that if we use a nose cone, we need a lighter one. We also need to use about 700 mL of water for the launches. Some changes we will make are to add another bottle to our bottle, create larger, more stable fins and make a lighter nose cone. We also need to create our parachute for the launch tomorrow. 

Launch Number Juan!

February 28 was our first bottle rocket launching! We learned how to launch and completed two successful attempts. During the first launch our bottle had 500mL of water and was released at 40psi. Our second try had about 700mL and released at 42psi. Our coke bottle had no modifications which means no fins or any additions that could enhance the period of time our rocket was in the air. When we released our first rocket it went into the air for 4 whole seconds! The second time our rocket stayed in the air for 4.5 seconds! From these two attempts we can say that an increase of water and slight increase of pressure will increase airtime.

Videos:
Right = Attempt #1
Left = Attempt #2

Rocket Power!

Remember that show Rocket Power? Ya, the one with that boy who had the orange dreads and the Hawaiian named Tito. Their theme song starts with, "We are riders, on a mission". That's us. We are on a mission to get our bottle rockets to stay in the air as long as possible. The link that Trevor posted, http://www.patrickcole.com/aiw/imd140/project.htm was a great intro on how to actually make a bottle rocket. We will use this resource to get started. Then the link that I posted, http://van.physics.illinois.edu/qa/listing.php?id=2144, we can use to make adjustments to make our rocket as best we can. This link helps to answer questions such as how much water to use and how to use fins so that the rocket will perform as well as it can. This is our first Team H2 Whoa pic. Hopefully we will be this excited when the bottle rocket test is complete.