2-L Rocket Eggmission

1. Q-Focus Rockets:

1. How do the fins influence the flight of the rocket?

2. Is the water a factor in the inertia of motion of the rocket?

3. When the rocket hits the ground, what happens to the inertia?

The project answered the first question about the fins influencing the flight of the rocket. We tried two different materials for the fins of the rocket. First we tried cardboard, but we ended up using CDs for the final launch. The CDs worked better and made the rocket fly farther because they pushed the air with the same amount of force, while the cardboard did not.

2. Making of Your Rocket:

Materials:                                             

-2 liter bottles                                                      

-duct tape                                              

-2 CDs                                         

-nutella                                                       

-bubble wrap               

-plastic bags

-nickels                                                                                     

-egg

 

Procedure:

1. Cut one liter bottle in half, and attach the top part of the bottle to the bottom of the other bottle.

2. Cut the CDs in half.

3. Attach the 4 parts of the CDs with duct tape to the outside of the bottle to make fins.

4. Put the nutella in a plastic bag and put it in the front of the rocket.

5. Place the bubble wrap around the nutella to make a cushion.

6. Put the egg in a plastic bag and cushion it with more bubble wrap before placing it at the front of the rocket with nutella.

7. Tape nickels on the inside of the body of the rocket.

8. Attach the front of the rocket to the body and secure it with duct tape.

 

 

3. Physics of Rocket

 

The launching of the rocket starts with a law of physics.  For a rocket to lift off, force must be exerted on it.  Newton's first law states that objects at rest will stay at rest, or objects in motion will stay in motion, unless acted upon by an unbalanced force.  The rate of speed will be determined by the mass of the rocket and the force created by the fuel because of Newton's second law: The acceleration of an object is directly related to the force exerted on that object and oppositely related to the mass of that object.  Newton's third law is that for every action there is always an opposite and equal reaction.  Therefore, the reaction, or motion, of the rocket away from the launch pad is equal to and opposite from the thrust of the engine or nozzle. 

(from gtastic.com)

 

 

 

4. How Does Your Rocket Protect the Egg from Breaking?

 

When the rocket falls back to earth, it is very easy for the egg to crack when it hits against the sides of the rocket from the impact of the rocket crashing down.  To prevent the egg from breaking, you can wrap it in foam and pad the sides of the rocket so that the egg will have a cushion to land on and does not get crushed by the force of landing on the ground.  Unfortunately, our egg cracked because we only used bubble wrap and nutella on the inside of our rocket.  This was not enough to keep our egg from breaking at the moment of impact when the egg hit the wall of the rocket.

 

                          

 5. Results

 

Our rocket went 57 meters.  Unfortunately, the egg cracked when it landed.  It was launched at an angle of 35 degrees, and we used 750 mL of water.  We launched it at angle of 35 degrees because the first launch proved that 40 degrees wasn't enough to make our rocket go further than 30 meters.  The only problem we encountered was our egg breaking because we did not have enough support to cushion the egg when it landed. 

 

           

 

 

6. What Did You Learn?

 

In this project, I learned how to apply physics to everyday life.  Newton's three laws were used in all of the aspects of the rocket and it taught me about how forces react off of each other.  I also learned that nutella, although it is delicious, can't protect an egg from the imapact of a crashing rocket.