2-L Rocket Eggmission

2-L Rocket Eggmission

1. Q-Focus

• What is the use of water during the launching sequence?
• Will many fins benefit the rocket's flight?
• Will the weather affect the trajectory of the rocket in air?

This project has helped me answer all three of my questions due to the various trials we had during the time given. The use of water during the launch is to create enough pressure within the rocket so it will launch. The many fins, twelve, benefitted my rocket by allowing it to be more aerodynamic as it flew through the air. And yes, the weather that we had did indeed affect the trajectory of the rocket due to the wind we had experience over the week of the final launch.

 

2. Making of the Rocket

Blue Print of first model.

•  First, I started with two 2-liter soda bottles and began drawing out the blue prints of my rocket.
• The materials I used in the creation of my rocket includes two 2-L bottles, 12 CDs total, blue duct tape, white duct tape, super glue, styrofoam, sticky styrofoam, and half of a plastic container.
  I then attached the 4 cut out CDs I had to the bottle with duct tape as fins for the rocket. After, I cut off the bottem of the second bottle and attached it to the first as the top of the rocket. And this was the first model of my rocket. (Please excuse the fact that I had the fins on the oppisite way).

The making of the first model.



• After the first test trial, I began to add more weight and fins to the rocket hoping that it would fly better. With a good amount of duct tape, my goal was reached in making the rocket heavier and in making the fins more durable. The extra small fins came from the left over cut outs of the CDs.

2nd model.



• I then added more fins to the top the of the rocket with the idea that it would help my rocket fly better.

Top half of my rocket.

• This is the final design of my rocket as I attached the top to the bottom with duct tape.

Final model.

 

3. How did the Rocket fly?

• The Rocket was able to fly due to the pressurized air and water within the bottom half of the rocket. The O2 of 80 PSI struggles to escape the rocket, but there is 660 milliliters of H20 blocking it. As the safety pin was pulled, water shoots out from the nozzle due to the pressurized air escaping, which launches the rocket into the sky. When all of the water leaves the rocket, the rocket then goes to its highest point, and eventually into free fall. My rocket averaged a speed of 19.13 meters per second.

  

  My simple diagram of force.

   

4. Egg Protection

• To protect my egg, I filled the top half of my rocket with styrofoam to reduce the impact of the landing. To contain my egg, I had cut a random hard plastic container in half, filled that up with styrofoam, and after the egg was placed in, I would semi-cover up the top with sticky styrofoam to hold it. Then I took the foot part of the 2-L bottle that I had used for the top half of my rocket and covered it with the sticky styrofoam as well. I then placed the foot hold of the bottle over the egg and then proceeded to connect my rocket as I compressed it. As I compressed the two halves together, I hoped that there would be less space and air in the top half of the rocket so that when it landed it would have no space to move thereby leaving the egg unmoved in the container. However, I was wrong. As the rocket landed, it went into a nose dive and the impact of the landing had forced the bottle opening inward and it pushed the whole container downward causing it to crush the egg from the top.

5. Results

• My rocket, #209, flew, on the test day, a total of 114 meters in 5.96 seconds.
• However, my egg did not survive the landing, therefore taking me out of the competition for first place.
• I launched my rocket at the angle of 40 degrees.
• I had used 660 mililiters of water for my rocket.
• My rocket flew almost flawlessly, but as the rocket came down, it went into a free fall and it nose dived. I believed that the angle was too high so when it flew, it flew too high and as a result, the landing was a heavy impact upon the rocket.

6. What I learned.

• I learned how to make a bottle rocket.
• I learned the physics behind the launching of the bottle rocket.
• I learned how to fashioned my rocket to make it more aerodynamic.
• I learned how to reduce the amount of "trials and error" by remodeling the rocket.
• And I learned to be happy my results due my hard work even though it did not completely come out the way I had wanted it to.