Thesis on "Water Rocket Design"

Thesis 4 pages (1388 words) Sources: 4 Style: APA

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Water Rocket Design and Lesson Plan

The water rocket is among the simplest and yet most exciting ways to simulate a ballistic reaction using safe household materials. The experiment involving the use of pressurized water within a container such as a discarded soda bottle can provide educational insight to young students beginning to learn about propulsion, compression engines, fuel usage and even about the peripheral emphases on taking safety precautions and preparing an experimental design. The Water Rocket is an excellent and engaging way to work with a modestly sized group of students in order to stimulate participation, insight, goal orientation and compliance with a set of specific instructions. The water rocket experiment could also serve as a great way to stimulate creative group activity amongst students.

Design:

The water rocket activity is particularly appealing as a way to examine aeronautics and related subjects in a school setting, mostly because of the simplicity of the design and the capacity of students to conduct research and made their own adjustments based on an evolving understanding of the principles at play. The design itself centers on the use of a few basic objects. The soda bottle is the most common object used to create the vessel itself, and will be filled with water. The nozzle of the bottle should be affixed to a narrow launch tube that fits into the nozzle and continues into the body of the bottle. The launch tube will be used to convey compressed air into the bottle so it must at its most basic be a narrow, hollow and non-porous tube through which the compressed air may pass. The compressed air can be transmitted through a variety of fairly standard and accessible means, including a basic bike pump, an air compressor or a CO2 cartridge.

The passage of the compressed air through the water will cause the air bubble to float to the top of the water mass, instigating a force of pressure that will cause the water to be rapidly ejected from the nozzle once it has been released from the launching tube. Once this reaction has occurred and release has been manually instigated, "the rockets made from these bottles are surprisingly powerful. A standard 2-liter pop bottle 1/3 full of water, pumped to 80 psi and then released, will eject all its water in less than one-tenth of a second, and at that point ("burnout") will be only about 2 meters off the ground. Amazingly, its velocity at burnout is around 76 meters per second. That's over 170 miles per hour." (Johnson, 1)

As per the design of the rocket though, there are a great many steps which the designer can take that will alter the relationship between these various measures. Adaptation to the structure of the rocket can redistribute the emphasis of its flight on distance, duration, speed, trajectory and a host of other variations that render the experiment extremely flexible and open to variable experimentation. As the literature describes on the subject, the use of fins is a common practice which helps to control the flight pattern and produce a more predictable trajectory. Applying a weighted object to the nose of the rocket is also a commonly used technique for improving the stability of the object as it loses the weight provided by the water. The expulsion of this fuel will not only power the rocket in its flight, but will also impinge upon the stability of the bottle as it becomes lighter and more susceptible to interference by the elements. Other common adjustments include the affixing of objects to retain the sturdiness of the structure. According to Johnson (1998), a water rocket constructed optimally can reach up to 300 vertical feet. This is a remarkable distance that can, of course, expose the rocket to damage upon its return to the earth. Thus, other design elements which may be taken into consideration may include rubber bumpers and crumple zones, which can help to lengthen the life of the rocket and make it suitable for repeat launches.

Design Test:

The launch test is the pinnacle of the work conducted by students. Here, the different groups that have designed… READ MORE

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