Instructor Info

Mark Wylie & Grant Wylie

thencwylies@aol.com KEEP IT SIMPLE, BUILD, BLAST OFF AND REPEAT

OFTEN.

Process
Read and understand the rules Research

Design
Build

Test
Analyze

Fix

Materials Required
Launcher build or buy

2 lt carbonated soda bottles

Scissors, card, packing tape, scrap wood, garbage bags,

twine, hole punch.

Important Rules
Build up to 2 rockets before the tournament Rockets will use 2 liter carbonated bottles

MUST WEAR SAFETY GLASSES

Nothing within 5 cm of the nozzle Launched at 75 psi Can use any recovery system Best single rocket time will win

What makes it work?

1. Water is poured into the pressure chamber

2. Air is then pumped into the bottle.

3. When the rocket is released, the air forces

the water out of the bottle.

4. Newtons Third Law of Motion kicks in

Parts of the Rocket and Forces

Pressure Chamber
2 Liter soda bottle

Do not cut or scratch the pressure chamber.

Can glue fins to pressure chamber with silicone or polyurethane glues.

If pressure chamber is damaged it will not be launched

Fins
Fins keep the rocket stable in flight

There must be at least 3 Fins must be rigid Backswept fins work best

Fin Shapes

What does it mean to be stable?

Stability:

the tendency of the rocket to return to equilibrium

This means if the rocket begins to veer, it will straighten

back up on its own.

To be stable, the center of mass must be closer to the top

of the rocket than the center of pressure

Nose Cones
Popular types: Conical Blunted Conical Elliptical Spherical Nose cones reduce drag Conical are easy to make but can be difficult to get

straight.

Recovery Systems
A recovery system is something that slows the rockets

descent.
The two most popular at the parachute and the backslider

Recovery Systems
The velocity of a falling object can be shown as follows

where v(t) is velocity, g is acceleration do to gravity, c is the coefficient of air resistance, t is time, and v(0) is initial velocity. C is much larger for a parachute than a backslider; therefore, it will fall much more slowly

Parachute
Parachutes work best but are harder to get to work consistently The size needs to match the rocket.

It should have 8 to 10 strings

Fold it like an accordion and then wrap extra string

around it to keep it folded

Making a Parachute

Cut Here

Making a Parachute

Backslider
Backslider is made by making the center of gravity close to the center of pressure This prevents the rocket from turning over at apogee and instead floating down on its side. Fins on this type of rocket should be larger to help

slow it down.

Example Backslider

Examples

Resources
http://dogrocket.home.mindspring.com/WaterRockets/

center of gravity & center of pressure http://waterrocket.uh-lab.de/backglide.htm backslider construction and discussion http://txsnapper.eezway.org/powerdeployment/ great info Robert Youens - Coney http://www.info-central.org/index.php?article=276 cg.cp.cla http://www.scioly.org/wiki/Main_Page SO student center http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_rocket General good

http://www.nerdsinc.com/ - launcher