Today we did a couple of launches. The first launch was exactly the same as yesterdays. It was the rocket with no modifications at all. The amount of water (500mL) and pressure (40psi) were the same as well. The time in the ayer was also the same as yesterday (4 seconds).
The second launch of the day was with modifications. We added fins to the rocket. These fins (as seen on the video below) were as close to the nozzle of the bottle of possible. We think that doing this will help to add weight to the bottom as well has keep the rocket straight while in flight. The amount of water used was 500mL and the pressure was 40 psi. The time in the ayer with the fins was just about 4 seconds. I think these fins did not create much drag because they were small and did not protrude from the widest circumference of the bottle. The third launch with fins did not turn out as well as the first. The pressure and amount of water were the same as the other launches but the time in the ayer was 3.5 seconds.
Tomorrow, Friday March 2, 2012, we will be launching our rockets with parachutes. Our plan for this modification is to place a cone shaped object(most likely a top of a soda bottle) on the rocket. It will be attached in a way where it stays on as it goes up but falls off when the rocket goes down. The parachute will be a plastic bag connected to strings (connected to the main section of the rocket) and will deploy when the cone falls off. Hopefully this simple plan will work as well as it sounds.
Here is the video of our first launch with fins.
No comments:
Post a Comment