By: Bryan Smith

Written for:
Mr. Hendricks
Honors Physics

LAB REPORT:
ROCKET LAB

Abstract
The purpose of the rocket lab was to predict the heights of a set of rockets being
launched and then calculating the rockets actual heights. This was completed in four different
steps. The first step was to measure for the thrust of the engine as a function of time using a
digital force gauge. Next, the drag coefficient of the rockets was measured using a wind tunnel.
Then, the height was estimated through a spreadsheet. Finally, the actual height was found by
launching off the rocket and calculating the height.

The actual height vs. the predicted height by rocket is listed below:

Introduction
During the school year the class studied impulse, kinematics, and dynamics. This lab
was completed to demonstrate these topics and reinforce the concepts for the students. Before
the labs began it was important to define some key terms:

Kinematics: Deals with the physics of motion

Dynamics: Deals with motion acted upon by outside

Impulse: The product of the force under a certain

Momentum: The product of Mass*Velocity

Drag Force: The force acting against the rocket
Drag Coefficient: Quantifies drag force

forces
amount of time

During the drag force section of the lab, one of the equations used frequently was the drag force
equation:
Fdv^2
Fd=kd*v^2
The next process needed for the lab was the classifications of engines. There are many types of
engines. The range of engines used in this lab goes from A-C although there are more powerful
engines beyond that. An example of this is A6-5. The A in the example stands for the amount of
impulse. The actual amount of impulse the engine has was around 2.5. The 6 in the example is
the average thrust the engine has, and the 5 is the delay from the burnout of the engine to when
the parachute pops out of the rocket. Before beginning the lab, the Impulse Momentum
Theorem needed to be calculated. This theorem was used when predicting the heights of the

rockets before the execution of the lab. It was important to derive the equation in order to prove
that it actually worked:
a=vi-vf/t
at=vi-vf
mat=mvi-mvf
Fnet*t=pi-pf
Impulse=pi-pf

Engine Thrust Analysis:

The first part of the lab was about finding the thrust as a function of time. Before the
class received the actual engine type, Mr Hendricks wanted the class to figure it out. In order to
solve for the thrust as a function of time; data was required before solving the problem. The data
was gathered through the setup listed below:

Triggering is a method of recording data that allows the user to calculate data more
precisely. The way this was done in this particular lab was by setting up a threshold. The
threshold in the lab was the change in force on the scale. When the rocket applied a force
above a certain defined target, the trigger goes off and the calculator starts collecting data.
When setting up the calculator, it was important to make sure the scale was zeroed on the
calculator, then, the following data was entered to set up the data collection:
Decrease
Data collection: 1/10th second
Threshold:-.5
Prestore:10% of the data

The next issue to solve was how to launch the rocket remotely. This was done by using a
wire covered in phosphorus to ignite the engine without being next to the flames.

By tying the rocket to a car and having it push against a scale, It was possible to figure
out how much impulse the rocket had and how long it lasted. The info was used to find the
average force using the impulse equation:
Impulse=Ft

The numbers were saved into the calculator the graph and looked like the diagram below:

The impulse is the area underneath the curve in the graph shown above. The impulse
was found through Rectangle Approximation. This technique calculates the area of small
rectangles that fit underneath the curve and will give a close enough approximation to the
impulse of the graph.
There was only one unknown and the following equation needed to be solved:
Impulse=Ft
Impulse=4.68
average time=1.07
Force=?
Force=4.68/1.07
Force=4.37
The data indicates that the engine type is: B4.

When calculating the data, the end result was a B4 engine. However, the actual engine type
was a B6. The reason the data was slightly off was because when the engine fired off; it moved
slightly so it hit the scale at an angle. This caused the numbers to be smaller than what they
actually should have been.
Drag Force

The next step was figuring out the drag coefficient. The equipment listed in the diagram
below was used:

For this part of the lab, a wind tunnel was used. This helped find the drag force of the
rockets. Since there were at least two types of rockets on launch day, two rockets needed to be
tested for the drag coefficient. All of the equipment in the lab was setup beforehand. In the setup
there were the honeycomb structures. These are used to stabilize the wind so the rocket would
have a smooth laminar flow while flying inside the air tunnel.

The diagram below displays the rocket itself and the forces being applied to the rocket.

Once the forces had been identified, it was time to solve for the drag force. To find the drag
force, the x and y force equations needed to be derived individually to find Fd:
X DIRECTION:
F=ma
Fd-Tsin=0
Fd=Tsin
Fd/sin=T
Y DIRECTION:
F=ma
-mg+Tcos=0
Tcos=mg

At this point, substituting the x direction equation into the y direction equation so there was only
one unknown:
(Fd/sin) cos=mg

Combine the Sin and Cos into Tan. Then solve for Fd:
Tan*mg=Fd
Fd=3.45
Before jumping into solving for the drag coefficient, the known information listed below was
listed carefully.
Mass of rocket=.061kg(61g)
=30
Then the drag force equation was used to find the drag coefficient
Fd=kd*v^2
Once it had been calculated the Kd for the smaller rocket was:
Drag Coefficient=.0003(1 sig fig)
Before moving on to the larger rockets, the drag coefficient of a ping pong ball was needed.
When a 2.3g ping pong ball is placed into the wind tunnel at a velocity of 12m/s it creates a drag
force just like the smaller rocket:

The same process was repeated for the ping pong balls drag coefficient and the same equation
was used from before:
Tan*mg=Fd
Fd=7.37
Fd=kd*v^2
Plugging in the Ping pongs numbers into the drag force equation allowed the acquisition of the
Ping pong balls drag coefficient:
Ping Pong Balls Kd= .0005
Ideally, this process could be repeated for the larger rockets, although it cannot since the larger
rockets could not fit in the wind tunnel. To get the estimated drag coefficient of the larger
rockets, the process bracketing needed to be used. This is where two objects are used to figure
out how much the drag coefficient is. for this situation, the larger rockets drag coefficient is more
than a ping pong ball and less than the other rocket. this can cause some slight errors in the
final predictions.
For the larger rockets:
Drag Coefficient=.0004
The only notable issue in this section was the turbulent air in the wind tunnel, although the
honeycomb structures were supposed to fix the problem but it couldn't solve everything. This
caused the calculations to only be calculated in one sig fig.

Numerical Model

In this part of the lab, the height of the rocket was calculated. The easiest way to do this
was through numerical iteration. The reason there was no other way to find the actual height

was because of how unconstant the numbers were. To make it as specific as possible and to
get the best results, the class recorded the data every 1/10th of a second. Although the data is
never consistent; the difference was small enough that it didnt really matter. Mr. Hendricks
created an Excel spreadsheet to simplify finding the the maximum height. The results are listed
below:

Each column has a different use in calculating the height of the rocket. The columns
have been listed 1 through 11. Numbers 1 and 2 are the prerequisites of using the program. In
order for the program to work; the mass of the rocket was added, and the Drag Coefficient was
calculated in the last part of the lab. #3 is the thrust that the rocket's engine generates, and #4 is
based of this formula:
(Thrust1+Thrust2)/2

Basicly, number 4 is about calculating the average of 2 thrusts. Number 5 calculated the
Drag Force using the equation from the drag force section:
Fd=kd*v^2
Number 6 calculated the Average Force using the data in columns number 4, and number 5:
Thrust Average-mg-Drag Force
Number 7 calculated the Average net impulse using the net forces data from the previous
column:
Fnet*average time
Number 8 is the last rows Final Velocity, and number 9 calculated the Final Velocity using:
Initial Velocity+Net Force*Average time/mass
Number 10 is the average velocity:
(Initial Velocity+Final Velocity)/2
And finally number 11 calculated the height of the rocket using:
(Initial Height+Average velocity*Average time)
Next, the masses and the drag coefficient were plugged in to find the final height of each rocket
with each type of engine(A,B,C). Mr. Hendricks provided the masses of each rocket without the
engine and the engine's mass. The masses were added together to get the mass of the rocket:

Now that the masses had been found. the drag coefficient of each rocket were plugged in:
Red black rocket =.0003
Big white rocket =.0004
red yellow rocket =.0004

And then, the numbers were plugged in and the spreadsheet did all the work!

Now that the numbers were known, it's possible to find the estimated height. The way to
find this was by looking for the maximum height before it started to go back to the ground.
Simply scroll down the spreadsheet until the numbers start to go down. Although it is good to
note that any numbers beyond the max height are incorrect. This is because air resistance was
accounted for on the way up. Air resistance does not work the same way going back down,
because air resistance will be moving in the same direction as the rocket.

Example, Black Red + A8 Engine:

Another thing to note is not to ignore air resistance. This is because without air resistance at this
velocity will cause a major increase of the maximum height giving an incorrect estimation. In
order to show how important it is not to skip air resistance; this is the same spreadsheet from
above except ignoring air resistance:

Example: Black Red rocket WITHOUT air resistance:

On launch day, there were three different rockets. Two of them have been discussed in the drag
force section of the lab. The third one is going to have the same drag coefficient as the larger

rocket estimated rocket. Below, are the estimated heights of all three rockets with all types of
engines available:
____________________________________________________
Rockets:

l Engines l

Height l

24

Red black: l

67

184

____________________________________________________
Rockets:

l Engines l
l

Big white: l

Height l
28

75

195

____________________________________________________
Rockets:

l Engines l

Height l

63

Red Yellow: l

132

281

____________________________________________________

Some of the problems that had occurred during this section are the assumption that needed to
be done so the spreadsheet would work correctly. This includes the assumptions on consistency
of the data during that 1/10th period of time. The actuality was that the data changed because of
factors like the changing mass of the rocket. This was known ahead of time and was not fixed
because it wouldn't have mattered too much in the end.

Launch Day

This is the fourth section of the lab which is launch day. This is where the estimations were put
to the test. First, it was calculated how far up the rocket went. This was done by using three
different people on three different sides, using protractors with strings attached with weights to
measure the angle. this way if the angle is known, finding the height of the object is a simple
math problem:

When preparing the rocket, an additional step was needed so the parachute didnt catch on fire.
It was prepared with wadding to prevent fire hazards. Also, if the rocket curves too much, the
model set up in previous sections would not work.

Multiple people were needed to calculate the angle because the rocket will not go
straight up, it naturally curves due to the forces acting upon it. Then, once all three angles were

gathered, all that needed to be done was to get the average and plug it into a SOHCAHTOA
equation.
Tan=opp/adj

A sample of how to get the height once has been discovered and is listed below:
Tan=opp/adj
Tan22=opp/50
Tan22*50=opp
opposite, or height= 20m

After launch this was the data the class received:

One of the major problems of this part of the lab was the paths of the rockets. Some of the
rocket's flight paths were too crooked to use as viable data. The most impressive part of the
entire lab was the red silver A engine estimation. The class was actually able to predict the
correct number for the height.
Conclusion
Now that the lab is over, the data can be reviewed:

Since the start of the lab, there was a chance that the numbers would be off, although the
predictions were not that far off. Two of the predictions were pretty close to the estimations and
one of the predictions that was correct. Overall most of the reasons the predictions were off are
based off the launch itself and how curved the path of the rocket was. The thing to improve on, if
the lab was done again, would be the Rocket paths of the tests. This would give the class more
exact data instead of the three that were actually usable.

Reflection
Overall this lab did what it needed to do. It led us through the step by step process of
launching a rocket cementing the ideas of the physic concepts we reviewed in class. Although
there were some issues that arose during the lab. the preciseness of some of the tests was a bit
undependable, this includes the angled rocket when testing its force, and the bent rocket paths.
These could have been solved if we put more time into it. This also applies for the estimation
for the drag coefficient. these were simply overlooked because they did not matter in the end.
Fortunately, there werent any lab breaking problems during the rocket lab.