One cardboard box- 1.99
One roll of duct tape- 2.99
Two rolls of toilet paper- 0.99 each
One bag of cotton balls- 1.99
Two pages of printer paper- 0.10 each
A small garbage bag- 2.00
A few yards of string- 1.50
II) Procedure
First, we cut off the bottoms off of two of the bottles and the neck of just one of the bottles. Then, we took the only bottle that was not tampered which we did not tamper, and flipped it upside down, so that the neck was facing downwards. After, we duct taped the bottom untampered bottle to the bottle with no bottom or neck (which looked more like a cylinder). The main portion of our rocket was done. Then, we moved to building the capsule for the egg. To do this, we took the two bottoms of the bottle which we cut off earlier and discovered that they fit snugly inside of each other, so with some tape they could easily support the egg to keep it in place. We gathered the two toilet paper rolls and cut the rolls to fit inside the capsule and taped them to make sure they were secure. We used one of our own eggs to make sure the egg would fit. Once we were sure it did, we surrounded the toilet paper rolls inside the capsule with cotton balls. Lastly, we attached strings from the capsule to a small cutout of a garbage bag for a parachute. The capsule was complete. For finishing touches to the main rocket we cut out carboard and duct taped them to the sides of the rocket as wings. For style, we printed out pictures of famous physicists and taped them around the rocket. And the rocket was complete!
III) Results
Our rocket performed phenomenally. It was the second highest flying rocket in the class and managed to deploy its parachute at an optimal position. Many of the other rockets in our class failed to have their parachute deploy or did not reach 60 feet. In terms of weather, it was quite optimal due to the lack of wind to divert the rocket from its course. In our test launches, I found that when I did not fill up the rocket with a sufficient amount of water, it did not reach a high height. Therefore, our group ensured we filled up the rocket to at least 1/3 of the bottles capacity. We also made sure to be patient when putting the rocket on the launch pad to be sure that no water was wasted. And lastly, Kyle's work in pulling the lever at a good angle to prevent the string from jerking made for a smooth takeoff. As for the parachute, many groups chose to stuff their parachute into their rockets which although it did protect the egg somewhat well, did not allow for deployment. Therefore, we made sure to allow the capsule to fit loosely to the rocket and pack the parachute loosely into the rocket so that the deployment could be safe. We were extremely lucky for the strings of the parachute not to get caught on the capsule though. Finally, our rocket was extremely light compared to the heavy and bulky rockets of our counterparts which may have made a part in our success.
Youtube clip about our process from conception to launch:
IV) Conclusion
Given the success of our rocket, I believe it would be very hard to add too many improvements to the rocket. But I believe that if we strengthened the wings with some stronger cardboard that would have made a significant difference. In terms of the shape and size, I think we reached the optimal composition. But in terms of the weather, if it had a better upwind in order to create a better lift that would have been helpful, but otherwise the project went excellently.
