How high will a water powered rocket go, determined on amount of water, and pumps of air pressure?
I am running an experiment to figure how high a rocket can go determined by pressure and water for the propellant. I am going to use a plastic water rocket for this experiment. I and many other kids have always wondered the best way to get a common water rocket to go as high as possible, we've also wondered how to keep them off the roof, but that's another story entirely. The method of finding it's height will be trigonometry, a certain method that is also used to find how high a building is, or a mountain or something.
Title/Question: How high will a water powered rocket go, determined on amount of water, and pumps of air pressure?
Hypothesis: I think the rocket will go highest with about 30 pumps, and halfway full of water. The only reasonable explanation is that the more pressure there is, the better propulsion.
Materials: 1 water rocket and it's works, a protractor, yarn, a leveler, a height-distance data sheet that show the values of trigonometric functions.
Procedure: Launch rocket with 7 pumps, 14, 21, 28, 35, 42, 49, or max, all at about 2.5 tablespoons (halfway) of water. Then launch with 1/2 tablespoon full of water, 1 tablespoon., 1 1/2, 2, 2 1/2, 3, 3 1/2, 4, 4 1/2, all with 20 pumps, which is the recommended amount. Then use the two most successful ones together once.
Directions:
1) Tie string to protractor's center.
2) Measure distance between subject and rocket.
3) Fill rocket with correct amount of water and pumps.
4) Make protractor string level accurately (lay on a flat surface if necessary)
5) Stand 20 feet away from the rocket.
6) Hold protractor so the string is strait when you move it.
7) Have a friend launch rocket, follow with string to top of height.
8) Record observations, calculate height.
9) Repeat steps three through seven until data table is full.
Purpose: I am running this experiment because I like rocketry, and the cheap cost of using a water rocket. I hope to find the best way of launching a rocket, a mystery waiting to be solved for years.
Variables: The wind might have a slight effect on the rocket's max height if strong enough. I might have been holding the rocket, or protractor and a wrong angle, something other than a parallel angle. I might have read the angle of the height wrong. The rocket's launcher or rocket could've been defective.
Conclusion: I conclude on this experiment, that plastic water rockets have an extremely short life span. I went through two sets, and still couldn't get all data. Anyway, it seems that the more pumps you have in the rocket, the higher it goes. It is good to have about one tablespoon of water in the rocket. Many things went wrong, so it would be better if I bought five of the same rocket kit if I did this again.
Bibliography: Microsoft Encarta, 1994 ed., Microsoft Corporation, 1994 The National Aeronautics and Space Association; www.nasa.gov. For their images. http://www.204.184.201.1/jhs.trigonometry.html