A Conversation for Missile Technology on the Cheap

Water Rockets....

Post 1

thephilosophizer871

Hint #1: add a small amount of clay (up to your discretion), to the top of your water rocket(bottom of soda pop bottle). This creates a higher center of gravity which creates better stability and increases inertia, thus making a higher rocket flight!


At my high school, physics classes hold an annual competition with water rockets to see how long you can keep it in the air (of course use of gases lighter than average air density is illegal - no helium! - but the use of parachutes or what other devices you might be able to concieve are most likely allowed). The longest we've had using a 2 liter soda pop bottle is about 23 seconds before it hit the ground. If anybody has beaten that or has had some other good airtime, please tell me your time and how you did it.


Water Rockets....

Post 2

Kiteman

If you check the NPL link I included in the entry:

http://materials.npl.co.uk/waterrockets/index.php

and check out the results links, they can get times of over a minute (nearly 2 minutes one year), and the 2002 winners have kindly told everybody how to do it:

http://web.ukonline.co.uk/akv/rocketry/npl_2002.htm

I teach in a middle school, and I sometimes do water rockets as an activities week activity, but I've never organised a proper "event". How does your school organise theirs?


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