Rocket Project

Hayden Bicknell

Cover Letter
The objective of this project was to create a successful rocket and be able to
describe a rocket in flight. Throughout our unit, we learned terms to help us understand
motion more. Three of these were position, velocity, and acceleration. The position is the
exact coordinates of something. Velocity is the speed of an object in any given direction
and acceleration is the rate of change of velocity with time, so if something is speeding
up it is accelerating. As well as those terms, we learned about quadratics. A quadratic
function is defined as a polynomial function with one or more variables in which the
highest exponent of the variable is two and has a minimum of one term which is of the
second degree(exponent). This relates to our rockets because the shape of a quadratic
function is a parabola or a half circle, it goes up and down in a curve and not a straight
line. When our rockets launch, they don’t go straight up and down or they land back on
the launcher. Instead, they make a curve of sorts, which can be represented well by
parabolas.
The process we used for creating the rocket was the engineering design process.
There are eight phases to this process: ask, research, imagine, plan, create, test, and
improve. The ask phase is identifying the need and constraints of what you’re doing, an
example of rockets could be, humans wanting to go to the moon so they need
something that will take them there and one constraint might be gravity. The research
phase is to research the problem, what rocket attempts have been done before? What
might be the right materials? The imagine phase is to imagine solutions, maybe you
imagine different noses for less air resistance or different landing ideas. The planning
phase is selecting a promising solution, a more promising rocket body might be a
cylindrical shape than a rectangle because of air resistance. The creation phase is
making a prototype, this is where you’ll build your first design. The testing phase is
where you’ll evaluate your prototype by sending it through multiple launches. The final
phase is the improvement phase where you redesign parts that didn’t work well in your
tests, this can range from tweaking something to completely redesigning it and
recreating it.
 Calculations

Max height using SOH CAH TOA

When we launched our rockets, we used an angle meter measuring 4.75 ft tall and 100 ft
away from the launcher. This was so we could gain the angle of our rocket to create a
triangle to solve for max height. My partner's and I’s angle measured 28.8°. As we
created a triangle to solve this problem, we put 100ft as adjacent and labeled the hyp
and opp sides, and labeled the angle. Using SOH CAH TOA we realized we had to use
tan since we had to figure out opp and had a number for adjacent whereas hyp was just
hype. So we used TOA which is Opp over Adj. We set it up as tan(28.8)= y/100 and
multiplied each side by 100 and then plugged it into desmos to solve. That answer was
our max height. You can add the angle meter height to it to get a more accurate height
but we didn’t do that.
 Time of Max Height

The way we found the max height was by counting the frames between when it left the
launcher to when it reached max height. For our rocket, it was 29 frames. An iPhone
shoots 30 fps or frames per second. So to find time in seconds we divided 29 by 30 to get
0.96s. That was the time our rocket took to reach max height.

Initial Velocity
 1 2
To find initial velocity we used the equation: ℎ(𝑡) = − 2
(𝑔)(𝑡 ) + 𝑉0(𝑡)+ 𝑦0. We
then listed our known variables. Then we plugged in variable g. Then we derived the
equation, resulting in h(t) = -32(t)+𝑉0. We then plugged in our t variable, and multiplied
-32 by 0.96. The equation now looked like h(t) = -30.72 + 𝑉0, we added -30.72 to both
sides to get 𝑉0 alone. The equation now looked like 30.72 = 𝑉0. 30.72 ft/s was our
rocket's initial velocity.

Theoretical Flight Time

To calculate theoretical flight time we used the formula for height at any given time:
1 2
ℎ(𝑡) = − 2
(𝑔)(𝑡 ) + 𝑉0(𝑡)+ 𝑦0. We then plugged in what we knew.
1 2
ℎ(𝑡) =− 2
(𝑔)𝑡 + 30. 72 + 1. 5 was the result. We then put this into the quadratic
2
−𝑏± 𝑏 −4𝑎𝑐
formula: 𝑥 = 2𝑎
, to figure out what our a, b, and c values were we looked at
2
the standard form of a quadratic: 𝑎𝑥 + 𝑏𝑥 + 𝑐. From this we could tell that the value
was -16, b was 30.72, and c was 1.5. Using a quadratic calculator to give us both zeros,
we plugged in our a, b, and c.
 The calculator gave us both zeros which were -0.05 and 1.97. Logically our flight time
could not be negative, so our total flight time was 1.97 seconds. Remember though, this
is the theoretical flight time, so this would be flight time if there was no air resistance or
parachute.

Blueprint - 1 square=2cm
 Reflection
A challenge my partner and I encountered in this project was the fins. For our
first design, we wanted to go with a helicopter seed design that would double as our
parachute system. These fins would rest on a monofin. Unfortunately, as we thought it
through we decided to scrap it because we couldn’t come up with a way it would not
affect the rocket going up. We did keep the monofin though and used that as our fin for
the prototype. Before we could launch it though, we were told to make it longer, so we
did. Although when we went to test launch it, the monofin broke in the air. We decided
to make it shorter and headed out for another test launch. It then broke once again and
two failed launches was the evidence we needed to change it again. It was obvious that
we needed to completely remake the fins but we only had two class periods on a Friday
to do so. So we looked at our time frame and decided to do something straightforward.
Our final fin design was three big triangular fins. Although this final design was a little
rushed and should have been better refined. The fins had kept giving us trouble and we
knew this simple design would work.
A success in our rocket design was our altimeter chamber. From the very
beginning, we planned to take the bottom of a different bottle and cut it to fit on the
bottom of our bottle. We poked some holes in it for the air pressure and it worked like a
charm, we didn’t even put any tape or anything to hold it on. In every launch we did, it
never fell off. We even attached the parachute to it and it never loosened or put the
altimeter at risk. This showed how simple an altimeter chamber could be. When we first
went over the rocket, the altimeter chamber was what stressed me out the most.
Because there wasn’t a lot of room on that rocket, where were we going to put a whole
separate space for an altimeter? But it turned out to be easy and the best working thing
on our design, this would show next year’s sophomores not to worry about it too much.
I’d even show them ours and how it seamlessly blended into our rocket and even
helped because that meant we could hot glue things to it and not worry about the
pressure chamber. I’d tell them how other kids just used a rubber band, through this I
would relay that you should put more energy into other things for your rocket.
If I were to do this project again, the first thing I would do differently is not
blatantly ignore others’ advice. During the shark tank, all the other juniors that talked to
us told my partner and I that our fin design would not work and that we should do it
differently. We decided to not take the advice at first because we wanted to try
something new but we should have listened to the people that have done this project
before. Because they had tested and found out what worked and what didn’t.
Eventually, this advice ended up proving true and we had to change our fin design
multiple times to get it to work in the slightest.
 A turning point in this project for me was our first test launch. It was on a
Wednesday because we hadn’t gotten a chance to test that Tuesday. Besides our
parachute, everything else fell apart. Our fin broke and the tip fell off our nose cone. Up
until then I had more faith in our rocket and thought that maybe we wouldn’t have to
make that many improvements. Unfortunately, I was proven wrong and it kind of sent
me into overdrive. At that point, we only had one more day to test launch with water
and I knew I needed to step up more. I hadn’t contributed to the rocket as much as I
wanted to and this told me that to build a successful one I would have to step up more.
That is why I took it to heart and spent class time, less distracted and more focused on
the rocket.