Abstract The main goal of this project was to compare both the predicted height and the actual

height of the rocket. It was to help get a better understanding of physics and how it is used in life. The first part of the experiment was to find a mystery engine using a force meter, and datamath(calculator program). Calculations were made to find the average force and the impulse to help find the engine type. The engine came out to be a C4 engine. The next experiment was to find the drag coefficient. This was done by using the equation for drag and Newtons second law. Using the equations, the rocket was determined to have a drag coefficient of .0002. The second to last part of the project was to use the excel spreadsheet to find the maximum heights of the rockets with the different engines. Using the spreadsheet to predict the height for the rockets it was determined that the blue rocket with a C6 went a predicted 240 meters. The white rocket with a C6 went a predicted height of 240 meters. The last experiment was to launch the rockets. Measurements of the rockets angle while in the air were used to make calculation to find the actual height of the rockets. The actual height of the blue rocket with a C6 went 140 meters and the white rocket with a C6 went 120 meters. It is clear that the predictions did not match up with the actual height, but even though the experiment was no a complete success it was not a complete failure. Introduction The main goal of this activity was to make predictions of rockets expected height when launched, by doing small experiments then comparing them to the actual height. First by finding the type of engine that the rocket was going to use, the drag coefficient, and using an excel spreadsheet to find the maximum height, all adding upon each other. Then launching the rockets and comparing the height of the predictions and actual height. The activity was done to get a

better understanding of physics and how it is used in daily life. In the activity there are words that may be unfamiliarly, below is a list and the definitions. -Kinematics-The study of motion, Doctor Sues equations -Dynamics-The study of how forces affect movement -Impulse-Something that changes the momentum of an object -Momentum-the movement of an object based on its mass and velocity -Drag Force-The resistance in motion -Drag Coefficient-Drag on a body moving through air to the surface area The equation that was used in the experiment was the impulse momentum theorem, F t= P, this equation would need to be derived to later be used to find the drag coefficient. To derive the equation begin with F t= P, F is the same as MA, so, MA t=P. Acceleration is the same as v/ t so, M v/ t *t=P. The ts cancel out and all that is left is m v=P. v=vfinal-vinital, that is

plugged into the equation and what is left is, m(vf-vi)=P. Distribute the m and mvf-mvi=P. this mean impulse= P. The rockets that we launched at the end of the day had different kinds of engines. The way that engines are classified is as follow. There are A, B, C, and D type engines, the letters represent the amount of impulse that a engine has. A has an impulse of 2.5NS, B=5NS,C=10NS, etc. The number next to the letter is the amount of force that it has, for example an A6 engine has a force of 6Newtons, and an A8 has 8 Newtons. in the activity numerical iteration was used very often. Numerical iteration is a way of problem solving, each part that is solved helps build to find the final answer. That is exactly what was done in this activity, each experiment help build upon each other, until it was possible to predicted the height of the rockets.

Engine Thrust Analysis The first part of the rocket project was to find a rockets type of engine based on the force and impulse. There is no need for a hypothesis since it is unnecessary. The three most important parts that need to be found are the engine, the average force, and the impulse. The impulse and the average force must first be calculated, before it is possible to determine engine. The manner that the experiment was set up is as follows. What was needed was a digital gauge, a rail, a frictionless cart, and a rocket engine inside of a candy box. The force meter was placed on the rail and taped so that it would not be able to move. The candy box was placed on the rail so it would be pushing up against the force meter. The force meter was connected to a CBL to record the data on the graphing calculator. Once it was connected the calculator the program datamath was open. Datamath was able to read that it was connected to a force sensor. The calculator also needed to be zeroed out since the rail was at a slight incline. The calculator also needed to have a trigger point to begin recording the data that was necessary in our experiment. The trigger point was placed as -1N, the negative just means that the rocket is pushing with force in the negative direction. The calculator was set up so once triggered it would record the data every .1 of a second, for five seconds. In total there would be 50 samples of data. Once the experiment was prepared and ready to start, a igniter was placed to ignite the motor (engine). The igniter has two ends made of wire, one is placed directly inside the rocket through a small hole at the top, and the other end is connected to a battery. At the center of the wire there was a small amount of phosphorus. That phosphorus would ignite once an electrical current passed through. The diagram bellow illustrates the experiments set up, the igniter. At

the end of this section there is a table and graph representing data.

The main goal was to find the type of engine in the candy box, but the impulse and average force are first needed. To find impulse, all force is multiplied by .1 or the change in time (T). The numbers were added up and the total impulse for the engine was 8.5 NS(Newton seconds). 8.5 Ns would determine if the engine is A,B, or C. to determine the average force, the force must be added together and divided by the quantity, 76.652/19=4.03N. The two numbers are able to determine the engine is a C4 once the impulse and average force are rounded to possible engine types. Probable mistakes that may have occurred in the experiment would have bene with the sensor not being be to read the data accurately. Another issue was the cart coming off the track when the engine was ignited causing issues with the data. It would have been possible that the engine may had been a C6. In conclusion the impulse of the engine was 8.5 NS, and the average force was 4.03 N. that determined the engine to be a C4. With inaccurate information it was possible to find a reasonable answer.

Drag Force The second part of the project was to find the drag coefficient being inflicted on the rocket once it was launched. A prediction of the rockets drag would also be necessary. There is once again no hypothesis for the experiment. To set up the experiment, a rocket of a weight of 34.9 grams was placed inside of a wind tunnel. Grams are not a standardized physics unit, so it is necessary to convert to kilograms, 34.9g/1000=.035kg. Once the rocket is placed inside the tunnel, it was attached to two stings hanging from the top of the tunnel. To find the drag coefficient a measurement of the both angles of the strings attached to the rocket would be needed. A person would be sitting next to the tunnel reading the measurement of the angles. It would also be necessary to record the wind speed in the tunnel using a wind gage. Once both of the measurements were recorded it would then be possible to plug into the equation Fd= mg/2 * tan(0). The experiment seemed to be a very simple one, but once the wind tunnel was turned on the rocket kept being pushed to the side of the tunnel. This issue should have never occurred since the wind tunnel has a honey comb structure to make sure turbulence does not occur. The experiment was retried over and over, without much succession until a respectful measurement of 20 degrees was recorded. Another person then measured the speed and got a recording of 38 m/s. All the measurements were now recorded and possible to find the drag coefficient. Below is a diagram of both the free-body diagram for the rocket and the experiment.

To find the drag coefficient it would first be necessary to find the drag. The equation for drag is Fd=Kd x V^2(Kd is drag coefficient and V is velocity). To find Fd, it was possible to use Newtons second law, F=MA and the free body diagram. The force for the x directions would be mg= tcos(0), and the force for y would be Fdy=Tsin(0). It is now possible to arrange the equation to cancel the unknown variable of T. the force in the x direction would need to be rearranged to to equal t. If the force in the x direction is used, mg=tcos(0), mg is divided by cos(0), to get T=mg/cos(0). The equation of the x direction was plugged into the y direction equation. Mg/cos(0) X sin(0)=Fd. Sin(0)/cos(0) simplify to tan(0). The final equation is mg/2 X tan(0)=Fd. Mg is divided by 2 since there are two strings attached to the rocket. When the numbers are plugged into the equation, .035*9.8/2 X tan(20)=.0625=Fd. Finding the coefficient is now possible using the equation for drag Fd=Kd(V^2). Rearrange the variables by dividing by v^2, the equation Fd/v^2=Kd can now be used to find the drag coefficient. Plugging in the numbers into the equation, 0625/38^2=.0002=Kd. The drag coefficient for the rocket is.0002. Issues with the experiment that may have corrupted the data would have been most likely to have been caused trying to the find the angle of the strings. The rocket continued time after time to stick to the side of the tunnel making it very hard to get a proper reading for the angle. This issue may have very welled played with the data. After the experiment was completed and the math processed, the answer to the drag coefficient of the rocket is .0002. Numerical Model The next part of the project was to find the height for the rockets using a excel spreadsheet. The spread sheet should be able to calculate the rockets, height, velocity, and other factors at any given time.

The spreadsheet was set up to do all the basic steps quickly and accurately. The information that was needed to be placed in the spreadsheet was the engine type, mass, and the drag coefficient. The thrust was also need to be placed in the yellow column that says ,thrust. Once all the proper information was placed in excel, it uses the thrust to do the first step, figuring out the average thrust. The average thrust is the first thrust plus the second thrust then divided by two,thr1+thr2/2. The next part would to find the drag force, the drag force would =thrustmass-drag. From that number to find the net impulse, Fnet*.1, it would be .1 because that is the change in time. To find the velocity, the prior velocity would be needed. Add the prior velocity to the net impulse and divide it by the mass=vi- p/m. From that the drag for would be predicted by multiplying the drag coefficient by the velocity squared, Kd*v^2. The last and most important factor to calculate would be the height. This would be calculated by adding the initial height to the velocity then multiplying it by the change in time. That would calculate the height On the spreadsheet all the rockets need to be compared. There was two different rockets (blue and white) with two different engines ,a total of four combinations. The two rockets would fly differently because of their mass and air drag. The blue rocket has a mass of .0417, while the white, a mass of .0701. The white rocket with a C6 engine and total mass of .094Kg went a total height of 240 meters, with a B6 engine and total mass of .0875 Kg went a height of 90 meters. The blue with a C6 engine and a total mass of .0652 Kg went a height of 330meters. The blue rocket with a B6 engine and a total mass of .0652 went a height of 160meters. Air resistance has a very important role in the spreadsheet. Without the air resistance there would be no force pushing back on the rocket, causing the height to be much greater. In conclusion the blue rocket with a C6 went a height of 330 meters, with a B6 a height of 130meters. The white rocket with a C6 went a height of 240 meters, and with a B6 a height of

90 meters. There is quite a difference with the different type of engines that were placed in the rockets, it not only affects the height, but many other factors too.

Flight Results The last part of the projects was to launch the rockets and compare them to the predicted heights and see just how close the predictions were. The hypothesis of this experiment was that the predicted height would be higher than the actual height because, of all the mistakes that occurred in past experiments. To find the height of the rocket the experiment must first be set up. The experiment was first set up so that three people would stand with protractors and read the angle of the rocket once that it was launched off. The people would all be 120 degrees, and 50 meters from the rocket. The reason that three people are needed to measure the angle of the rocket is because it gives a much more accurate height when they are averaged. Another reason is because a rocket often times to not tend to go vertically up by drift. The more people that there would be recording the angles, the more accurate the height would be. When the rockets were ready to launch, an igniter was placed so that one end would go into the engine, and the other connected to the battery. Once everything was in place and the countdown hit zero, the rocket was sent off. Below is a diagram of how the experiment was exactly set up.

To calculate the height of the rocket for each person trig would need to be used. Tangent would be the main trig function that would needed to find the height. Below is a diagram of the math to calculate the height of a rocket.

Once all the numbers were recorded it was quite obvious that it would be necessary to play around with the math. The cause for this change is because with the C6 engine, there were angle measurements of 59, 90, and 46 degrees. For the blue rockets with C6 engine there was angle reading of 63, 90, and 50 degrees. Since both of the rockets had a reading of over 90 degrees, the use able data would be brought down to two people, causing a need for a different distance. The distance used would be the distance between both people with significant data. Trig would be used since the two people are 30degrees from eachother, 120degrees from the rocket, and it is know that they are 50 meters away from the rocket. The law of sins would be applied so that, sin30/50=sin120/x, x=50sin120/sin30=86.6meters. The distance between the two people was 86.6 meters. Tangent could now be applied to find the height of the rockets. Bellow is the math to find the height of the rockets and from that height, 1.7 meters must be added for the height of the person, since they are recording the angle at eye level.

The height calculation for the white rocket came out to be 117.7, about 120 meters. For the blue rocket the height was 138.58, rounded it is about 140meters.

The main issues with the experiment is that one of the persons reading passed 90 degrees, making it only possible to use the data of two people making it inaccurate. That may have been caused by the wind occurring at the time of the launch. In conclusion both predicted heights of the rocket were off from the actual height.

Conclusion In conclusion the rockets actual height and the predicted heights were very off. The predicted height for the white rocket with a C6 was 240 meters, and actual height was 120meters. The blue rocket with a C6 engine predicted height was 330, and actual was 140 meters. The prediction may have been a bit high since there were mistakes along the activity. It first began with the candy box coming off the rail, to the rocket sticking to the side of the wind tunnel making it difficult to get a proper reading of the angle. If it would be possible to redo the engine thrust experiment so the cart would not slip off the track. The wind tunnel experiment could have also been redone to make sure a proper angle was recorded. When the rockets were launched it would have also been better to use more people to record the angle of the rocket in the air. The experiment was not perfect, but the mistake can be used to learn for future experiments.

Reflection The main goal of the project was to not get precise, exact, answers, but to use physics to make predictions to find rockets maximum height then see if the prediction matched up with the actual answer. The difficulties on the experiments often could easily be solved with common sense. Often times unreasonable number were said to be the answer, and in fact they were not. Math

mistakes were common, being careful with calculations are one of the most important factors to get the correct answer .It was a project to understand that experiments are not always perfect and that there is always room for error. The activity helped understand that physics occurs in everyday life, and it is a very important skill to understand, it helps with problem solving and thinking outside the box, seeing the whole picture as a whole.