Our rocket launch went really well. It flew straight and went up 512 feet. The landing was really bad though because our ejection charge that makes the parachute go off didn't work and our rocket just crashed into the ground and broke.
The first thing we made was the body tube. To make it cut out three long pieces of butcher paper. Next we tapped the end of one strip to a PVC pipe then in a spiral we wrapped it down the tube then tapped the other end in place. We then evenly spread wood glue on one of the other stips then placed it directly on top of the first piece and wrapped it. The last strip of paper we put glue on, then wrapped it in the opposite direction as the two other strips so that there's no chance of the tube unraveling. The next day we came back to school the tube was dry. We cut the ends because they were pointed from the corner of the paper. Once we cut them we slid the tube off the PVC pipe. We realized after cutting it that it was only 12 inches long instead of our original plan to make it 15.
Next we made the fins. The first thing I did to make them was draw one fin that was the actual size we were making them. I lined up the drawing on a piece of balsa wood then used a pushpin to outline the drawing. After that I used a pencil and connected all of the dots I made with the pushpin. Then I cut it out with a razor cutter and traced that fin to make four more. We cut four but in the end decided to only use three. We attached the fins to the body by first sticking them on with super glue, then putting a layer of wood glue on both sides of the fins. For The nosecone, we ended up using a PVC That Andrew brought in. It fitter fealty into the body of the rocket. Body: 15 inches long, 1.5 inches in diameter with an area of 74.22. To make it we are going to cut three long strips of butcher paper then use glue to wrap them around a PVC pipe to dry in a cylinder shape.
Fins: One fin has an area of 6.89 inches. We decided to make the fins out of balsa wood since its light and we can easily just cut them out with a razor blade. Nose Cone: the nose cone is 1.5 x 5 inches with an area of 13.68 inches. We are going to also make the nose out of balsa wood. I think we should make it by carving the end of a small cylinder of wood into a point, using a box cutter, then use sand paper to smooth it out. Parachute: We are going to cut a circle with a diameter of one foot. Well make it out of a trash bag and hole punch four holes into the edges to tie string through. Engine Housing: our body tube is going to the perfect size to just slide the motor in place. To secure the motor we are going to use a metal strip from a card stock folder. For this experiment Savreen, Lydia, and I made cookies and researched the chemistry components involved in making them. The first thing we did was find a good recipe. The ingredients used were flour, baking soda, salt, butter, white sugar, brown sugar, Vanilla extract, an egg, water, and chocolate chips. After knowing the ingredients we were going to using we researched the chemistry part of the lab.
All of the chemistry goes on while the dough cooks so the first thing we found was how the dough spreads. The ingredient that holds the ball of dough together is the butter, so when you put it in the oven the dough heats up causing the butter to melt. When the butter melts the dough loses its structural integrity and starts to spread. Next we found out how the cookie rises. At about 212 degrees Fahrenheit the water begins to turn to steam. The cookie rises as the water vapor pushes through the dough. Eventually the baking soda starts to break down into carbon dioxide gas which makes the cookie rise even more. The cookie gets it's flavor when two chemical reactions take place. The first is caramelization. The solid odorless sugar crystals begin to break down into a brown, fragrant liquid. This gives the cookie its taste and smell. The cookie also gets flavor and smell from the proteins in the flour and raw egg. Looking back, I think I'm really happy about this lab. Me and my partners worked really good together and got work done even though we are all friends. Every one did their equal share of work. I'm also happy that I took the time to think further about the chemistry in baking, because I've never really questioned the science in making food. I think that by doing this lab I've learned that I should be questioning the science behind everyday things in my life. Me and 3 of my friend have been wantin to make bath bombs for a while now so for this section we decided to make them from scratch. The first thing we did was conducted research on how bath bombs work and why they react with water the way they do. We found that bath bombs are made of citric acid and sodium bicarbonate. The two are inert when dry but once they come into contact with water they start to create sodium citrate and carbon dioxide causing the water to bubble the way it does. Next we had to mix citric acid, baking soda, Epsom salt, and corn starch. After mixing them together completely so there we no lumps. We then mixed water, essential oil, and food coloring in a separate beaker. Next we had to very slowly mix the liquid ingredients with the solid ones to prevent any reaction to occur. After mixing them we had a sort of mold able sand. We used round frappucino lids from Starbucks. We put the mixture in two lids then pressed them together to make a circle. Once they are molded we carefully took the lids off of the mold and set it on a shelf to let them fully dry for 24 hours. We made four bombs in total. The next day, to test if they worked properly we filled a bucket with water since we couldn't use a bath tub. We tossed one in and watched what happened. Immediately you can see the reaction happening and the gases being released. It quickly dissolved and left the room smelling like the pikaki flower and orange essential oils we used. Looking back I think one thing that would have made this experiment more interesting for me would be to to extract our own essential oil like we'd planned, but we didn't have enough Rosemary to extract a large enough amount. I worked with Nick, Autrina, and Isabelle. I've worked with them before so I knew that we'd be able to cooperate and get work done and we did.
We tested the thrust of our motor and unfortunately the largest amount of thrust we got was 196 grams. That wouldn't even be enough to lift a model rocket off the ground. I think that our motor was so weak because the nozzle of our motor was a 1/4 inch hole and that didn't let enough pressure buil in the core chamber. Because there was such a small amount of pressure our motor was basically just a smoke bomb.
If I were to try to make another motor o would instead use a 1/8 inch nozzle. This is our motor design. Me and my partner's desired to make a end burning rocket with black powder fuel. Most people in the class were doing core burners so we wanted to see how a end burner would work out.
End Burner: An end burner is a type of motor that when lit the rocket launches with a low amount of thrust. As the fuel burns, pressure starts to build in the chamber. The pressure builds because it has a small nozzle and a short core. It has the most amount of thrust at the burnout of the motor. Core Burner: A core burner has a core that burns outward equally from all sides. When lit it has an equal amount of thrust because of the fuel having an equal burn in all directions. Black Powder Rocket Fuel: The most commonly used small model rocket engines are the black powder engines. These are the "traditional" model rocket engines that have been in production since the 50's. Black powder model rocket engines are made of a paper tube with a clay nozzle, a solid pellet of black powder propellant, a smoke/delay charge, and an ejection charge. R-Candy Rocket Fuel: R- candy is a type of rocket fuel that is made up of potassium nitrate and common white sugar. Rocket candy is called such because of its sugar content and appearance of caramel. The sugar acts as the fuel and the potassium is the oxidizer.
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AuthorI'm a 10th grader at HTH. This is my blog for chemistery class. I'll have this class forthe first semester until it is replaced by spanish. |