Rocket Project

Klaliff Varney

Academy for Math, Engineering and,
Science

Mr. Hendricks

Abstract
The B-3 physics class was needed to do four things. They needed to test an
unknown rocket engine and find out what the impulse is, and figure out what type
of rocket engine it was. Then they had to use a wind tunnel to find the drag
coefficient of a small rocket. Using the data they found and a spread sheet given by
the teacher, each student had to predict the final height of each rocket that was
going to be tested. Then the rockets were launched and the heights were calculated
and compared to the predictions. The results are as follows:
Rocket

Predicted Height Actual Height
Small White Rocket 23 Meters 30.1 Meters
Red/Silver Rocket 92 Meters 447.46 Meters
Black/Red Rocket 72 Meters 258.29 Meters
Big White Rocket 73 Meters 188.30 Meters
Red/Yellow Rocket
(B engine)
50 Meters 168.35 Meters
Red/Yellow Rocket
(C engine)
97 Meters 477.42 Meters

Introduction
This experiment was separated into four sections. For the first part the
teacher gave the class a rocket engine and told the class they had to light it and
figure out what type of engine it was based off the impulse data collected. The
second part was an air resistance test. A rocket with a given weight was put into an
air tunnel and the class had to find the drag coefficient of that rocket. The third part
of the experiment was a height prediction for all the rockets. The fourth and final
part of the experiment was launching the rockets and recording their height.
This experiment was done so the students could understand a good
experimentation process and how to write a good report behind it. Each step
behind the experiment was important. It was very important to know about things
such as kinematics-the study of motion, dynamics-the study of forces, impulse-
motion produced by a sudden force, momentum-the product of mass and velocity,
drag force- also known as air resistance is what causes something moving through
the air to slow down, and drag coefficient-the number that quantifies air resistance.
Something that was very important for the impulse part of experiment, it is the
impulse/momentum theorem. Impulse/momentum theorem is Force time the
change in time which is equal to the change in momentum. ) This is
derived as from:
There are 4 different rocket engines that were used during this experiment:
A3, A8, B6, and C6. Each letter and number means something different. The
letter classifies the rocket by its impulse and the number is the average force
delivered. The A engines impulse is 2.5 NS and every consecutive engine is double
the last one, meaning the B engine is 5 NS and the C engine is 10 NS. If the
impulse is divide by the average force delivered the burn time of the engine will be
found. For example, a B6 engine has an impulse of 5 NS and the average force of
6N. So,

= .83 Seconds.
Another important topic that became useful when predicting the height of
the rocket was numerical iteration. This is where there is a range of numbers that
can be substituted into an equation for a range of answers. This was used when the
class was figuring out the air resistance for the various rockets. When the class
measured the air resistance of the original rocket it was on the smaller size so for
the larger rockets that number had to be higher to account for their size.
Engine Thrust Analysis
The first part of this experiment was to find the impulse of an unknown
engine type. The engine was placed in a cardboard box on top of a car on a track
with a force gauge in front of it. Next a calculator was connected to the force gauge
to record the data the force gauge gave. The force gauge was zeroed out before
testing. An igniter was attached to the rocket and a battery. A student was told to
turn the battery on and the rocket ignited.

The data collected is as follows:
Time 0 .1 .2 .3 .4 .5 .6 .7 .8 .9 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3
Force 0 0 0 .4 5.02 10.14 5.24 3.82 3.55 3.89 3.94 3.99 1.42 0
To the impulse, the equation Impulse = Force times Time had to be used
( ). This is the graph of the data:

To get a better more accurate measure, the mid-point rectangles were used.
The points were then multiplied by .1. The impulse ended up being 3.923 NS.
There are three types of engines that will be used in this class. Since an A type
engine is 2.5 NS and a B type is 5 NS, it was deemed a B type engine. When 3.9
NS was rounded to the nearest whole number, it became 4, which is much closer to
5 than 2.5.
Here is a thrust analysis graph for each engine:

0
5
10
15
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14
Force
Force
Drag Force Lab
For the second part of this experiment, the class had to find the drag force of
a small yellow rocket by putting it into a wind tunnel. The rocket had a given
weight of 61g (.061kg). It was attached to a string with a protractor next to it for
the angle measurement. Like so:

The class then had to derive the equations:

and

The derivation is as follows:
) )

) )

When the wind tunnel was turned on, the rocket was pushed and the string
orientation was changed and then compared to the protractor. The angle measured
27. The velocity was measure using a wind speed gauge. The speed of 15

was
found. With those two calculations and the weight of .061 kg the equation
and

were used to find the drag coefficient.

) )

))

The class decided to round up to .002 because the rockets that will be
launched are going to be bigger than the one used in the wind tunnel.
In the wind tunnel, in between the fan and the rocket, there is a honeycomb
structure. What this does, is it separates the larger air stream into multiple smaller
air streams which cause a much more uniform air flow. This allowed the velocity
of the air flow to be consistent throughout the chamber. The reason this is done is
because when a rocket is launched, the air it travels though is uniform (if without
wind) so this would need to be replicated to get proper results. This is what the
structure looked like:



Here is a motion diagram of the rocket in the wind tunnel

Mg



Kd
Fn
Numerical Model Lab
The class was given a handout spread sheet to fill out to understand how it worked.
This spreadsheet was used to predict the height the rockets will fly. On the
spreadsheet it went from t=0 seconds to t=.5 seconds. The data for the thrust was
given and the average of said thrust and the total height needed to be found. To do
that for example the thrust at t=0 and t=.1 was added together and then divided by
2. So at t=.1 the thrust produced was 6.0NS which would make the average for the
time 3.0. Then the drag force had to be found. The equation for that is

. At t=0, V=0, so

which results in . From there the

average net force had to be found by taking the average thrust minus Mg minus Fd.
If Mg=.931 ( ). To get the impulse take the average force of 3.0, subtract
.931 for Mg which is then multiplied by , which comes to .207. The initial
velocity is 0 for t=0. To get the final velocity the equation must be used
which equals

. Which at t=.1 equals 2.18. To find the average velocity

the initial and final velocities are added and divided by 2. To get the final height
take the initial height plus the product of the T * the average velocity.
After the class filled out the spreadsheet and understood it. A full version of
the spreadsheet was given via excel to the class. The class was then assigned to use
the spreadsheet for two different rockets with all three engine types (A8, B6, and
C6) each with their respectable drag coefficient.
Each student also had to use the spreadsheet for the small white rocket. It
had a mass of 30 grams with its A3 engine. It had the drag coefficient of .001.
The predicted maximum height was 23.22 M at T = .2 Seconds. The other rocket
that will be in this report is the big white one its three masses with the engines of
86 grams, 89 grams, and 95 grams. The drag coefficient of this rocket .003. The
weight and drag coefficient were imputed into the spreadsheet along with the thrust
information that was provided with the spreadsheet. The highest point for the A8
engine was 18.15 meters at T=1.9 seconds. The B6 engine was 35.44 M and 2.5
seconds. The C6 engine was 74.57 M at 3.6 seconds. There is an example of the
C6 engine presented below.
The class was then asked to find the height of the rocket if there wasnt any
air resistance. To do this the drag coefficient had to be changed from .003 to 0.
With the big white rocket loaded with the C6 engine the height changed from
74.57 to 502.79 which shows air resistance cannot be ignored.
A spreadsheet example of the rocket predictions is included.
Flight Results Lab
The class needed to launch rockets and collect the data then compare it to
the predictions made beforehand. Before the rockets could be launched, certain
preparations had to be made. Three students were given protractors to measure the
angle of the rockets while in flight. The students were placed 50 meters from the
launch pad at the points, forming an equilateral triangle, like so:

The reason for using three people to measure the height is rockets dont fly
straight up so one person measuring the angle would not suffice. The protractors
being held by people were roughly 1.7 meters off the ground which means the 1.7
has to be subtracted from the final height. To find the height of the rocket, the
average of the three angles per rocket needed to be found. Then the angle had to be
put into the equation ) where is equal to the averaged angle.
The 50 in the equation is the distance from the rocket to each person that was
measuring the angle. The tan () is used to find the x on this triangle:

50M
50M
50M
And the 1.7 is subtracted because the protractors being help by people are roughly
1.7 meters off the ground. For example the Small white rockets equation is
) meters. The angles and their averages for each
rocket are presented below:
Small White Average angle Red/Silver Average angle Black/Red Average angle
1: 30 1: 87 1: 88
2: 34 = 29.6 2: 89 = 83.6
2: +90=NA
= 79
3: 25 3: 75 3: 70

Big White Average angle Red/Yellow(B) Average angle Red/Yellow(C Average angle
1: 75 1: 78 1: +90=NA
2: 75 = 75 2: 77 = 73.5 2: 88 = 84
3: +90=NA 3: 65 3: 80

The predicted height compared to the measured height of the rockets is
presented here:
Rocket

Predicted Height Actual Height
Small White Rocket 23 Meters 30.1 Meters
Red/Silver Rocket 92 Meters 447.46 Meters
Black/Red Rocket 72 Meters 258.29 Meters
Big White Rocket 73 Meters 188.30 Meters
Red/Yellow Rocket
(B engine)
50 Meters 168.35 Meters
Red/Yellow Rocket
(C engine)
97 Meters 477.42 Meters

The reason the numbers are so off is because the rockets didnt fly straight
up. When the rocket curves it changes the distance between all of the students
measuring the angle. This will cause the angle to either be greater or smaller plus
the change in distance also alters the equation. It greatly changes the outcome.


Conclusion
Rocket

Predicted Height Actual Height
Small White Rocket 23 Meters 30.1 Meters
Red/Silver Rocket 92 Meters 447.46 Meters
Black/Red Rocket 72 Meters 258.29 Meters
Big White Rocket 73 Meters 188.30 Meters
Red/Yellow Rocket
(B engine)
50 Meters 168.35 Meters
Red/Yellow Rocket
(C engine)
97 Meters 477.42 Meters
There is a major difference in the predictions and actual heights because the
rockets didnt fly straight up. When the rocket curves, it changes the distance
between all of the three people that were measuring the angles of the rocket. So the
average that was taken isnt the true average. Plus, the 50 meters that was used in
all of the equations wasnt always 50 because the rocket was closer to one person
but further from another. The outcome is greatly changed by this curvature.
If this experiment were to be redone, there are a few things that would need
to be taken into account and paid more attention to. A few of the major things are
wind, the launch pad being vertical, and the rocket being connected to the pole at
the top along with at the bottom which is not seen in this picture:

These issues can all be watched and possible dealt with. The wind can be
adjusted by having a flag of sorts to check for wind and the rocket can be launched
when there is little to no wind. The loop holes in the rockets can be added if
needed. The launched pad should be checked before every launch to make sure it is
completely vertical.
Reflection
This was the first major application of what I have learned during the first
two quarters or physics. It was not only a good test to see if the knowledge was
retained, but I also feel like I learned quite a bit from it. Towards the end of the
project, I started to write my labs a lot better, which is something that should be
helpful for the rest of the year. This experiment showed me a great application of
how physics is used every day and I realized the importance of some of the things
learned in class. One thing that I think should have been taken into consideration is
launching the same rocket multiple times to check for the type of error we
encountered.