Final Blog Post, "Better Late Than Never"

The overall outcome of our rocket lab was not a success. Our final rocket did not make the 10-second requirement, and did not meet all the physical requirements. Launch after launch, something always went wrong. Fins would fall off, the nose cone would stay on, or the parachute would not deploy. Although, our first rocket did make and exceed the 10-second requirement, we did not capture the launch on video. This launch was timed at about 21 seconds, and had a successful deployment of the parachute. After the destruction of our first rocket, our group tried to duplicate all aspects of our first rocket. Appearance wise, everything seemed the same. But little did we know that this rocket was going to be a false hope to our group. Our group theorized many ideas of why this rocket was not as effective as our first one. As troubleshooters, we adapted to what we thought was the problem, but it didn’t make any difference. We made as much adjustments we could before we launched, and still had no exceptional results to show for it.

Some possible reasons of our second rocket being a failure is, the weight of the rocket, the design of the parachute, the trouble of the cap coming off the rocket, and the weather. Our group was not afraid to use the hot glue, and we intended to make our rocket indestructible. But in doing so, this added more weight to our design. The aesthetics of the second rocket was very well done, but we were unaware that the tape added unnecessary weight as well as cut down on the pressure within the chamber of the rocket. Due to the added weight of our rocket, we theorized that the design of our parachute was not adequate. Not only the design, but also the deployment of the parachute was not synchronized. It would either come out to early not allowing the rocket to reach its highest, or it would deploy too late causing our rocket to plummet into the ground, almost destroying our whole project.

Overall this lab was a good experience, teaching our group numerous lessons. The importance of finishing tasks on time was clearly important to our group. Our group was behind from the start, and really never got back on top and caught up with the rest of the class. We also learned that communication between group members is key. Many miscommunications amongst our group held us from our full potential but also made the group better in the long run, because we learn from our mistakes. The last lesson this project taught us, is being responsible for your part, and depending on your group to do their part.  When someone falls behind, it’s important to have someone there to pick you up, and help you to catch up. This video shows our best recorded launch that we captured on film. Overall this was our normal launch, which didn't exceed, but met our expectations.

The following is data our group collected while launching our rockets.

Launch #	Air Pressure	Amount of Water	Height	Approximated Air-Time	Result of Launch
1st Launch	70 Psi	1.2 L	300 ft.	21 Seconds	The rocket launched, parachute opened, slowly drifted down. Perfect launch.
2nd Launch	45 Psi	1.4 L	0 ft.	0.001 Seconds	The rocket reached 40Psi, and then the rocket exploded. (A first in Kam. Physics History)
3rd Launch	65 Psi	1.2 L	200 ft.	11.3 Seconds	The rocket launched, arched, parachute didn’t deploy, and then crashed into Hala trees.
Final Launch	55-75 Psi	1.1-1.4 L	50-100 ft.	2 - 7 Seconds	Launches this day were very poor, and varied in reasons why they failed. Reasons are explained in paragraphs.

Published by (Noah and Darin)

Bottle Rocket Entry #5 "Worst Launch Ever "

First off, sorry the video is sideways. I didnʻt realize I was holding my iPhone the wrong way while recording. But anyways, this was probably the most depressing day for our group. We fixed it up, put all the fins on, and expected that the rocket was going to perform as good as it did the last time we launched it. But as you can see from this video of our best launch of the day, it didnʻt go so well. Our rocket either didnʻt go high, or the parachute didnʻt deploy, or we forgot to hook it up correctly and every launch was just a mess, and it confused me an Noah. We were frustrated because we didnʻt understand what was wrong. We tried less water, more water, more pressure, loosening the nose cone, tightening the nose cone, but we just couldnʻt get our rocket to perform as well as our first two launches, minus the launch that exploded.
The weather was horrible; the rain poured, and it was very muddy, and every time we launched our rocket we got splattered in mud. It was GREAT, except for our shitty launches. Our rockets usually got between 11 and 25 seconds of air time, but it seemed that today, our final day to launch, was our worst day of launching rockets. If we were given more time, maybe two more days to recreate, and launch another rocket, I believe our group could exceed our previous attempts at launching outstanding rockets.

Posted by (Darin and Noah)

Bottle Rocket Entry #4 "3rd Launch "

So, we created another rocket, and this time it didnʻt explode. We built our second rocket, with the same design as our first rocket. We hoped that it would be as good as our first launch, but unfortunately it was just an alright launch. The rocket reached about 200 feet, and the parachute didnʻt pop out. The movie clip is on a small portion of the entire fotage we taped. Earlier in the clip, before we were about to launch the rocket, I noticed that the top was on fairly tight. I had to be careful, and loosen the nose cone, without setting off our rocket. After a nice spiral into the air, our rocket took a sudden turn, and arched. It then crashed into the two Hala trees by the stairs near performing arts parking lots. The parachute got tangled in the tree, and I had to climb the tree to retrieve our rocket.

First launch- Awesome
Second Launch- Rocket explodes
Third launch- Rocket crashes into Hala trees

Posted by (Noah and Darin)

Bottle Rocket Entry #3 "How to Blow Up Your Bottle Rocket"

So, today Noah didnʻt come to school, and I decided to try and launch our improved rocket on my own. Everything was going well, right up until the rocket was about to launch. The water was filled to the same amount as our first launch, and the air pressure barely reached 50psi, which is way less than our first launch. It was strange because I was still able to easily use the pump with one hand, and the hose was leaking. Then, out of nowhere our rocket explodes in my face. The fins were everywhere, and our rocket was blown open, down the center of the bottle. The explosion was decently loud, and I was left soaked in water.  The pieces that had been blown off were actually very warm to the touch due to the explosion, and I had to spend the period salvaging whatever parts were left on our rocket. Our group is set back, but we can build another rocket just as good, in a short period of time. Unfortunately our new rocket wonʻt be as nicely decorated, due to the fact that the paint was possibly the cause of the explosion.

Possible causes of the explosion:
1- The paint weakened the plastic bottle, making it easy to expand and explode.
2- While razor cutting the design for the rocket, the blade might have punctured or left a small hole/scratch which lead to the explosion when the air pressure in the bottle started to expand the bottle.
3- God was hating on our rocket, and blew it up
4- Karma is a B****, and S*** happens.

According to Mr. Blake, this is one of  the first times that he has had a studentʻs rocket blow up. If this will help anyone in any way, or if you might possibly run into the same situation, please leave a comment. Thanks. (Darin and Noah)

Bottle Rocket Entry #2 "First Launch"

Noah and I have finally caught up with the rest of the class. Our group may be behind in posting on our blog, but as soon as we have another chance to launch our new rocket, we will begin to upload video footage. Noah and I skipped the first two launches, and went straight to building our rocket with fins, a cone, and a parachute. We designed our rocket with two sets of fins to keep it from spinning out of control when launched. Our parachute also was a last minute design, which looked like it wouldn't work, but for all of you who saw our first launch during the beginning of the first activity period would know how "beast" our rocket is. Our group did not tape our first launch, but to summarize how awesome it was; our rocket shot up to an estimated height of 200-300 feet, and after falling for two seconds the parachute deployed successfully, and our rocket floated from above Konia field down to the road where the buses turn into Konia, and almost got caught in a tree. The estimated flight time was somewhere around 15-25 seconds. The specs on what we did to make our rocket launch higher are:

Water- about 1 liter, or half the bottle
Air Pressure- We kept pumping until air began to leak from the hose, and we got tired

 After a few modifications to the broken fins, and a half-ass 6th period paint job, our rocket is ready to be launched again next week.

Bottle Rocket Entry 1

http://www.teachervision.fen.com/friction/lesson-plan/63872.html

This site taught our group the basics to bottle rockets. It explained to us about how the laws of physics pertain to our bottle rocket lab. The site explains how rockets are forced upwards by burning fuel that produces large amounts of gases expanded by heat. In the bottle rocket lab, the rocket is fueled by a liquid, and air pressure, and the flight of the rocket is influenced by the ratio of liquid to air pressure. The pressure builds up, thus forcing the stopper on the bottle to pop off, causing the rocket to fly upward. This site basically gave our group an insight into what our rocket will do.

You need to complete the assignments

You need to complete the assignments from Friday and this weekend. Failure to do so will result in an inability to complete your project.

Please be sure to remedy the situation as of now, I do not know who is in your group other than Darin.

Mr. Blake