Rocket Lab Report!

By: James Smith

Abstract
In this lab rockets were launched, and the heights were predicted and real heights were
given. The result of this lab was that the height of the rockets could be predicted to a reasonable
degree of accuracy.

Introduction
In this rocket lab, the participants performed a series of learning activities and
experiments that ultimately got them to a hypothesized result of how high the rocket would go
given any engine and size of rocket. These activities consisted of Engine Thrust Analysis, Drag
Force, Numerical Model, and eventually the actual Flight Results. The ultimate reason for the
rocket lab was to apply all of the physics knowledge that was learned in the previous months into
one big experiment, so that the participants could use the skills they had learned to retrieve an
answer to a question of, how high will a rocket go if someone launches it? Some of the learned
skills that were applied in this experiment were kinematics, which is the study of motion,
dynamics that is the study of things that cause motion, impulse which is the driving force
(Force*Time), momentum which is how much force it has already going (Mass*Velocity) , drag
force (air resistance), and drag coefficient. The impulse/momentum theorem was also a huge
factor that was used in the experiment and the derivation is followed:

The experiment was so complicated due to the change in thrust and speed over any time interval
that it had to be solved by numerical iteration, which is when the problem is broken into many
smaller ones that can easily be solved by a series of equations.

Engine Thrust
The purpose for this lab was to figure out if the engine used in a rocket was an A, B, or C
engine, but ultimately was to set the data that was needed later on to predict the rockets height.
The procedure used could be reused any time to find the size of an engine. A force gauge was
used that we put on a track with an engine inside a box on a cart with near frictionless wheels.
The box was pushing against the gauge in a way that would provide accurate results.

In the lab, a device that connects to a calculator called a CBL was used to read the
datamate program. The gauge was first zeroed out then the calculator was told to record the data
every tenth of a sec. A trigger was then set for decrease because the gauge read a pushing force
as a negative number and a pulling force as a positive. Therefore, the trigger threshold was set to
-0.5. A prestore of 10% was set to see what happens from actual zero. As shown in image A the
engine was connected to a wire with two ends. Then the wire was connected to a battery and
from there the battery was turned on to ignite the engine.

Figure B shows the max thrust for each of the different engines. The largest value of
force that came out was 8.5 which could be rounded to 9 and since 9 is closest to 10 the engine
that was used was a C engine. The Engine was a C-6 engine due to the fact that most of the thrust
was given at the beginning as shown on the Graph on the next page labeled Results.

Drag Force
The purpose of this part of the lab was to find the drag coefficient on the rocket.
Something called a wind tunnel was used with a rocket connected to a string and a protractor to
read the angle of the rockets movement. The wind tunnel used a fan to suck air through the
opposite side so the wind coming through the tunnel could push the rocket and the angle could
be read. On the opposite side of the fan where the air came in there was a honeycomb structure in
the opening to prevent a lot of turbulence, or undirected airflow, so the rocket could stay still and
the angle could be calculated.

In order to find the drag coefficient a free body diagram was performed on the rocket that
was inside the tunnel and on a ping-pong ball that acted as a bigger rocket since a bigger rocket
couldnt fit in the tunnel. This created no problem because as long as the objects general width
and surface is the same they should have the same drag coefficient. The drag coefficient couldnt
be calculated until the drag force was calculated because the drag force is required to find the
drag coefficient.

The above image shows the procedure in which the drag force was calculated on the
ping-pong ball and the angle that was found in the wind tunnel was 73 degrees, the mass of the
ping-pong ball was 2.3 grams or .0023 kg. Plugging these numbers in the equation given above
gives a drag force of 0.737. To find the drag coefficient or Kd the equation that follows was used
and the results for the ping-pong ball are given also.

Numerical Model
In this part of the lab we made an excel spread sheet that would calculate the predicted
height of the rocket at every tenth of a sec. In order for the spreadsheet to work, we had to
calculate the mass of the rocket depending on which engine we used. Once we found the mass,
we plugged it into the spreadsheet along with the drag coefficient of the certain rocket. The thrust
that we learned to calculate earlier was given to us at every tenth of a sec If you look at the
attached spreadsheet you will find many rows of numbers. In this spreadsheet, I decided to use a
c-6 engine with the red/black rocket. In the first row labeled Average thrust, you have to average
the thrusts. You have to add the two thrusts in two different times then divide them by 2. In the
second row labeled Drag Force we used the equation Fd=kd*v^2 the kd= .ooo3 and the velocity
is always the final velocity of the last column. The row labeled Average Net Force was calculated
by taking the average thrust and subtracting the two downward forces which were gravity and
drag force. The Average net impulse was calculated by change in time multiplied by the change
in time which is always 0.1. The Initial Velocity is the final velocity of the last column. In the
next row we found the Average velocity by taking the initial and final velocity adding them and
then dividing it by two. The initial height was calculated by the last columns final height and the
final height row was calculated by the initial height adding the average velocity and multiplying
by time, or 0.1. The predicted height of the rocket is the highest it goes which in this situation is
204.41 at 6.7 and 6.8 sec.
There were many possibilities that could have been calculated but four of them are:

If there were no air resistance it would affect the results dramatically and the rocket
would go so much higher because it lost another force pulling it down.

Flight Results
In order to get good flight results three people were used in this part of the lab. These
people were placed about 120 degrees from each other, and 50m away from the rocket. These
people had a protractor to calculate the angle from them to the rocket this is all the information
needed to find the height. The reason three people were used is because the rockets sometimes
curve and depending on which way it could give someone a higher or smaller angle than the
exact, so with the three people if the angles are averaged it is the most accurate angle possible.
-Figure A shows how to find the h=eight.
-Figure B shows how the people were placed from the rocket.
-Figure C shows how the angle is different depending on where the person is.

In Figure A theta is given by the average of the three angles given 50m was the distance
everybody was from the rocket and once the he is found eye-level has to be accounted for which
is why the he and hs is added to get the Height.
For the actual results the, Red/Yellow, Red/Black, and White rockets were used. Both the
White Rocket launches curved too bad to be accurate and one of the Red/Yellow launches curved
too bad. So only two results from the Red/Yellow and the Rew/Black launches.

Conclusion