First Launch

Today, Melody and I completed our first launch. We were scared at first because we didn't know if it was going to be successful. Our launch lasted 6 seconds, and it was successful :) Before we were going to launch it, we made sure that the rods were in place so that the bottle wouldn't tilt over. We filled the bottle with 500ml of water, then we attached it to the water pump. Melody made sure that she pulled the string at the right angle so that it wouldn't tilt over. We launched it, and initially the rocket flew straight up, then eventually it drifted with the wind, but it didn't hit anything! On Thursday we have two launches to complete. We plan to modify our rocket by putting a cone at the top of the bottle, and attaching a parachute as well. We intend to also attach fins at the opposite end of the bottle to prevent the bottle from drifting as much.

Thoughts on Creation of the Rocket

As we begin researching about these water bottle rockets, I came across this website: http://www.nasa.gov/audience/foreducators/topnav/materials/listbytype/Water_Rocket_Launcher_Directions.html.  This site gave directions on how to create a water bottle rocket launcher.  After reading this, I learned that these water rockets are capable of flights greater than 100 meters!  The basic concepts I got from this website is that you fill the bottles with some water and pressurize it with compressed air (delivered by hand bike pump).  I'm assuming that by doing this it, the water in the bottle will create weight it needs to stay in the air for a longer period of time and the pressurized air will be the launching part of the process.  There was a picture attached to the website and it looked as if the bottle had a coned shaped nose to it.  Lydia and I play to place a nose shaped cone to create a more sufficient path for the bottle in flight.  There were also wings attached to the sides, and it was placed on some time of podium like thing.  Hopefully we will be able to create all of these things on our bottle and it will be successful!