Final Post (: Good-bye world

So our rocket launching days are over, awwwwww. We did not come out successful in the end but I believe that as a group we did a great job! 

Looking at our data table below, we had a lot of data that was all over the place. Our times were inconsistent and it was hard for our group to figure out why. For example, we couldn't tell if fins were helping the flight. Or, if the parachute worked better with our first modification or our second. Reflecting on our hard work if we had more time to collaborate and more time as a group for this project we think we could have reached our 10 second goal. Unfortunately, we came up short about 2 seconds. On our last launch day we kept launching to see if maybe the wind would pick up or some miracle would happen to get to 10 seconds. It was pretty hilarious.  

Things we would do differently would be to create more stable fins. We feel that our parachute and cone in the end came out great but our fins due to material and rain didn't help as much as we hoped. Through out our launch day's we made little by little modifications.  This project was very fun and educational. 

Some things that helped us during this week was websites and also the blogs. We learned from other groups' blogs and posts, what worked and what didn't worked. What they did to improve their rocket and things they learned helped us to improve and understand launching rockets. As a group we really worked well together and equally helped out. In all, we've learned that getting our rocket stuck in Midkiff tree sucks! 

Launch Day #5

Today was a almost sucess. We reached 8 seconds. We modified our rocket by making our cone smaller and adding 6 fins. We also laminated all of it because last time it rained and got ruined. We also had a cone at the top with a parachute under. We were pretty confident before launching. The first trial it went okay we got 5.4 seconds. The second launch we got 8 seconds. From there it just went down hill. With the weather our rocket got more and more wet. The water soaked through the lamination and on our last trial we took off the fins to see if it made a difference and on the last trial it went for almost 6 seconds. We didnʻt modify our rocket after 8 seconds because we had a limited time of launching so we just tried to launch as many times as possible hoping that it would make the 10 second time. We enjoyed our launch except for the fact we were soaking wet by the end of the period and the soap didnʻt help keeping us clean (:! Today was fun!

Day Four: March 7, 2011

The modified bottle w/ laminated fins & (HUGE) cone

First attempt of the day

Today, was quite a challenge for my group members and I, though, luckily we (barely) made the required 5 second suspension time with 5.3 seconds. In the first diagram above, it depicts our first rocket of the day. As you can see for yourself, we only had four fins ~ attached by hot glue and duck tape. On top of our bottle is our parachute, which is covered by the lovely nose cone Taysia made out of recycled paper. Finally, we used a piece of a garbage bag to attach the nose cone to the body of the rocket (also one of today's requirements). In our first attempt (pictured above), the parachute did open, but it fell too quickly...giving our time at about 3~4 seconds. Unfortunately, the weather was not in favor with us today. The wind and rain may have been a factor in the poor performance of our second launch of the day (too embarrassing to show). Because our materials were not laminated in these series, the dampness of the nose cone and fins, may have had a significant role in the poorness of our second launch. But, we were able to make six new laminated fins, and a nice BIG nose cone before the period ended. In the end, the third launch was successful..but the parachute was tangled, limiting the time to 5.3 seconds, but for today, it'll have to do.

Day 3

Today we added a parachute in two ways. The first was by lightly taping it to on top of the rocket with no protection hoping it would just pop off, that didn't work. However what did work was placing the parachute inside the cone. We detached the cone and gently put the parachute inside. After when we reattached the cone, we did so barely so that it was only placed on top of the rocket. The pressure from the rocket going into the air is what most likely kept it on top but when the rocket reached the point where it was about to fall, the cone fell off and the parachute opened perfectly. So now that we have figured out what works best for the parachute, we now have to figure out how to get the rocket in the air longer. We're thinking that if we have a more aero-dynamic cone shape then the rocket will farther into the air because we increased the pressure to 50 from 60 and it didn't make much difference.

Day Two: March 1, 2011~Last Launch of the Day!

The final launch and video for the day! In this launch, we added a paper ball (crumpled pieces of paper) into the nose cone. In doing this, we had hoped that the ball would create a drag on the rocket, somewhat equal to the mass of the water, in order to slow down the rocket's flight.

Day Two: March 1, 2011~Second Launch of the Day!

In this video, our rocket had only three fins/wings, which had come off during the first launch of the day. Attached to the bottle is also a nose cone that we cut out of another 2 liter bottle.

Day Two: March 1, 2011

This video shows our group attempting to launch our rocket with

plastic wings as our first modification.