Objective & Hypothesis

In this experiment, we made a bottle rocket by using the chemical reaction

between vinegar and baking soda as the energy for launching. The main objective of
this lab was to find out how to launch a bottle rocket successfully. The rocket needs
to hit the target that is 20 meters away from the launcher. We have to consider about
the angle of the launcher as well as the amount of chemical that we use. We
hypothesized that if the angle of the launcher is 45 degree and we use 25 grams of
baking soda mixing with 250 mL of vinegar, then the rocket can launch about 20
meters and hit the target precisely.

Discussion of Physics Concept

Measurement

In 1960, an international committee created a set of standard unit for

measuring the basic quantities which is the adaptation of metric. This system of
measuring is called Systme International dUnits as known as SI. Thus makes
people in different places in the world be able to yield the same result when
conducting experiment

In addition to the basic SI unit, we also use some prefixes in order to measure
the substances that is either relatively large or small.
 Newtons law of motion

Newtons first law of motion

Every object continues in a state of rest or of uniform speed in a straight line

unless acted by a nonzero net force

The crucial word in this law is the word continue. According to this law, the motion
of the object will remain in the same condition unless there is another force acting on
it. In the case that the object is at rest, it will stay in the same positions until someone
applies a force on it. In the case that an object is moving, it will continue to move at
the constant speed until there is another force that applies on it.
 Net force

To fully understand about the first law of motion, you need to know several
concepts. One important concept is net force. Before proceeding to the net force, let
defining the term of force first. Force is the thing that makes the object change in
motion which is simply known as a push or pull. There are various types of source
that can produce energy like gravity, electricity or ourselves that applied force on that
particular object. When there are one more force exert to that object, the force will all
combine and move to the certain direction with certain speed which can be called the
net force. One thing that you need to remember force is the vector quantity which
indicates both magnitude and direction. It can be written down in the form of arrow.
Its head indicate the direction of force while its length represents the magnitude of
that certain force.

Equilibrium rule
When there are two forces acting on the object in the equal amount and
opposite direction, the net force will become zero in which we can call mechanical
equilibrium. There are two types of equilibrium. If the object is moving in uniform
motion, it is dynamic equilibrium. If the object is at rest, it is static equilibrium. It
can also be written as a mathematical formula like the following picture.
 In this formula, stands for the sum of vector and F stands for force.

Equilibrium of moving things

When object moves at the constant speed in the straight line, it is in the
equilibrium. Due to the first law, object cannot move in the uniform motion, if there is
only one force present. It supposes to have at least two or more forces that applies
to the object. For instance, a man pushes the box and it moves at the constant
speed in the straight line. This can happen in the case that friction that encounters
the force of girl in equal and opposite direction.

Support force

When you place an object on a table, there are two forces involving in the
system. The first force that pushes the object downward is the force due to the
gravity which is the weight of that object. The second force is the force that pushes
the object upward which must be equal and in the opposite direction is called
support force.
Newtons second law of motion

The acceleration of an object is directly proportional to the net force acting on

the object, is in the direction of the net force, and is inversely proportional to
the mass of the object.

This can be written as an acceleration equals to the net force dividing by mass. The
unit of the force is newton (N), the unit of the mass is kilogram (kg) and the unit of
the acceleration is meter per second squared (m/s 2)

Free Fall
Free fall is occurs when the object falls at the acceleration of gravity which is
approximately 10 m/s2. In this case, the objects that has greater mass will has
greater attraction toward the earth and greater in the resistance to move which
indicate greater inertia properties. However, it will always has the same acceleration
regardless of any masses and air resistance.

Non free fall

When an objects falls from the top of building, there are two forces that acting
on it. The first force is gravity that pushes the object upward while the second force
is air drag that push it upward. By having these two forces acting on the object,
acceleration of fall is less than gravity. It is now depended on two things which are
speed and frontal area. When the objects moves fast enough, it will reach the certain
point when the force of gravity is equal to the air drag. At this point, these two forces
are equal and opposite in which they cancel each other and the net force become
zero. When there has no net force, there will be no acceleration and the object will
move at the same speed till it reach the group. The point that the gravity equals to
the air resistance is called terminal speed. It can also be called the terminal velocity
in the case that the direction is taking into account.

Newtons third law of motion

To every action there is always equal and opposite reaction.

 When we exert a force on an object, we will feel another force acting back.
One is called action and another force is called reactions which can be called co-pair
interaction. This means that the force will exist only in the case that there are two
forces. These two forces are always equal but they act on the different objects s.
When we apply a force on an object, there will be another force acting back. One is
called action and another force is called reactions. These can be called co-pair
interaction which means that neither force can exist without one another. These two
forces are always equal but they act on the different objects which can have different
masses.

Linear Motion (Free fall)

Linear motion is the motion influences by internal force and moving in one dimension
only. This motion gives us straight line pathway.

Linear displacement and distance

- The linear displacement is the length moved in a given direction - it is a
vector quantity.
- The magnitude of the displacement is the distance - a scalar quantity.
Linear velocity and speed
- The linear velocity is the rate of change of displacement with time. As
displacement is a vector so velocity is a vector.
-The magnitude of the velocity is speed. It is the rate of change of distance
with time - hence it is a scalar.
- If a body moves with uniform velocity then it must move in a fixed direction
with constant speed.
- The average speed of a body is the total distance moved divided by the total
time taken.

Free Fall
 An object that falls through a vacuum is subjected to only one external force,
the gravitational force, expressed as the weight of the object. An object that is
moving only because of the action of gravity is said to be free falling and its motion is
described by Newton's second law of motion. This motion is considered in null of air
resistance. With algebra we can solve for the acceleration of a free falling object.
The acceleration is constant and equal to the gravitational acceleration g which is 9.8
meters per square second at sea level on the Earth. The weight, size, and shape of
the object are not a factor in describing a free fall. In a vacuum, a beach ball falls
with the same acceleration as an airliner. Knowing the acceleration, we can
determine the velocity and location of any free falling object at any time using the
following equations.

This is 5 formulas for calculating linear motion

 Where a is the acceleration, V is the velocity, and S is the displacement from
an initial location. If the object falls through the atmosphere, there is an additional
drag force acting on the object and the physics involved with describing the motion of
the object is more complex.
Acceleration changes when either direction or magnitude changes. It is equal
to change of velocity over time. In free fall, acceleration is equal to gravity.

Example of Free fall

Feather and coin fall at the equal acceleration and time in the vacuum
because the absence of air resistance.

coin is heavier than feather but reach the ground at the same time
 The coin and the feather fall in the vacuum tube at the same rate. They both
reach the ground at the same time. Mass and surface area of objects are not the
factor of velocity in free falling motion.

Projectile

A projectile is an object upon which the only force acting is gravity. There are
a variety of examples of projectiles. First, an object dropped from rest is a projectile
(provided that the influence of air resistance is negligible). Second, an object that is
thrown vertically upward is also a projectile (provided that the influence of air
resistance is negligible). And an object which is thrown upward at an angle to the
horizontal is also a projectile (provided that the influence of air resistance is
negligible). A projectile is any object that once projected or dropped continues in
motion by its own inertia and is influenced only by the downward force of gravity.
By definition, a projectile has a single force that acts upon it - the force of gravity. If
there were any other force acting upon an object, then that object would not be a
projectile. Thus, the free-body diagram of a projectile would show a single force
acting downwards and labeled force of gravity (or simply F gravity). Regardless of
whether a projectile is moving downwards, upwards, upwards and rightwards, or
downwards and leftwards, the free-body diagram of the projectile is still as depicted
in the diagram at the right. By definition, a projectile is any object upon which the
only force is gravity.

Vertical motion only without air drag, speed lost while going up
with gravity equals speed gained while coming down:
Time going up equal time coming down

Ideal pathway is pathway from the calculation but actual path is the pathway
that come from doing the experiment. Actual path is not the same with the ideal path
because air resistance and wind that blows against the object when the object fall.
Ideal path is calculated when the air resistance is negligible.

A satellite is simply a projectile falls around Earth.

The speed of the satellite must be great enough to ensure that its falling distance
matches Earths curvature. Satellite need to travel at 8 km/s or 29,000 km/h.
 Energy

Something that enables objects to do work which is measured in Joules.

One of the important types of energy is mechanical energy. It is the energy

depending on movement and position of an object. There can be divided into two
types of energy. First energy is potential energy. It is the energy that is stored in that
particular object. This can be found in fossil fuel, electricity batteries and even the
food that we eat. Sometimes, potential energy is depended on gravity of the Earth
which can be called gravitational potential energy. This can be written in the formula
as gravity equal to the weight times height. For the height, you can choose the
reference level as a point to measure the distance from it to indicate the height.

Another type of energy is kinetic energy. It is energy of moving objects which

is depended on mass and the velocity. It can be written as energy equals to the
mass multiplied by the square of the speed, multiplied by the constant . It can be
equals to work that is needed to bring the object to rest or bring it at that certain
speed.

Conservation of energy
Energy cannot be created or destroyed; it may be transformed from one form into
another, but the total amount of energy never changes.
 Work

Work is the changes on the motion of the object depending on both amount of
force and the length of the distance. It is the effort that we put on an object that will
alter its energy. In the simple case, force is the constant and the movement of the
motion is in the straight in the direction of the force can be defined as force time
distance. It can be classified into two categories which are work that done against
another force and work done to change the speed of the object.

Power

It can be defined as how fast you complete the work which can be written as
work divided by time interval. The units that can use to measure power are
watt/kilowatt and joules per second. The example of power is a man who run up the
stair uses more power than a girl who walk slowly along the beach.
 Work-Energy Theorem

Work is equal to the change in kinetic energy which is based on the net force
and the speed of the objects. For instance, in order to double the speed, an object
requires 4 times the work. This is also applied to the potential energy too. The result
of the work is the gain and reduction of energy.

Machine
The machine is the device that helps in increasing or changing the direction of
the force. It is underlined the concept of conservation of energy. However, it cannot
multiply or change the direction of the work. One of the simple machines that you
can see is a lever. This is an example of changing the direction of the force in which
we put down one side of the lever and another opposite side will lift up. In this case,
the friction is neglected, thus work input is equal to work output. The point that
supports is called a fulcrum. When it is near the load, it will make small input be
able to produce large output. This is because a force is exerting in a larger distance
which makes another side that has a shorter distance from the point be able to move
further. Another common mechanism is a pulley. It is the simple collection of wheels
that will make you be able to change the object direction or multiply the force so that
you can lift heavy stuff easier.
 Efficiency
Some machine is ideal machine; the amount of work input is the same as
amount output. However, in practice, we do not expect this to occur. This is because
not all energies are converted to kinetic energy, some are converted to thermal
energy that is why surroundings of machine become warmer. For instance,
sometimes there is friction at fulcrum which is converted to thermal energy. The
lower efficiency of a machine, the greater amount of energy is degraded to thermal
energy. We can calculate the efficiency of a machine by looking at the ratio of useful
energy output by total energy input.
 Energy for life

Every organism on earth needs energy to generate their bodies. However, we can
see insufficient in this as large organism has to feed on many small organisms to
sustain the amount of energy that they need.

Source of energy
Sunlight
Sunlight sometimes can use as an alternative source of energy while it can
produce nuclear fusion thermal energy which makes us feel hot in the sunny day.
The first example is generator turbines. In this example, sunlight evaporates water
and then water falls as rain that flows into the river and into generator turbine.
Another example is a solar cell that transforms sunlight into electricity by photovoltaic
cells.
Wind
Wind power turns turbines which can later transform into electricity

Concentrated energy
The example of this type of energy is a nuclear power. Nuclear power is
usually stored in uranium and plutonium as to prevent it radiation from spreading out.
The byproducts of nuclear power are geothermal energy that is held in underground
reservoirs of hot water to produce the steam that will drive the turbogenerators.
Another example is a dry-rock geothermal power which produces electricity.
At first, water is filled in cavities in deep, dry and hot rock that will make water
become steam. When water becomes steam it will reach the turbine at the surface.
After that, it will exit the turbine and fall back in order to cavities in order to reuse
again.
 Momentum

Another important concept that we would like to explain is momentum. It is the

product of the mass and velocity. It is the vector quantity which we have take both
magnitude and direction in consideration. For example, two trucks move with the
same speed in different direction, so these two forces have different momentum.
Impulse is the change of momentum over time. This can be written down in the
formula as the product of the quantity of force and a period of time. We can prove
this by using newtons second law of motion which can be written down as mass
times acceleration equals to force. When we move time to the other side, we will get
force times time equals to change of velocity time mass.(F * t = m * v).

Conservation of momentum
Another concept that is important in momentum is conservation of
momentum. It means that momentum will remain unchanged in the case that no
external force interferes with the system. This is because force inside the system is
balanced and net force becomes zero. This reminds us of newtons third law in which
two objects interacts and exert an equal and opposite force on one another. One
thing that we have to consider is that momentum is a vector quantity in which we
have to take the direction of the force into account.

Collision
Collision is one of important situations that can use to explain conservation.
Collision is when two objects hit with each other. No matter what type of collision it is,
momentum before and after the collision will always remain the same. There are two
type of collisions in momentum. First one is elastic collision. This is when two objects
hit and rebound. Second type of collision is inelastic collision which is when two
objects hit each other and stick together or generate some heat.

Impulse

It is the change of force overtime which is the product of force and time. For
instance, a brief force applied over a short time interval produces a smaller change
in momentum than the same force applied in the longer period of time. This can
indicate that the greater the impulse exerted on something, the greater the change in
momentum. There are three cases that impulse changes momentum. First case is
increasing the momentum. This can be done by exerting the largest amount of force
as long as possible to increase the time of contact. For example, baseball player hit
a ball and follow through to increase the time of contact.

Another example is decreasing momentum over a long period of time. This

can be done by increasing period of time contact while momentum is decreasing as
the force will also become smaller. The good representative of this situation is the
car that is out of control is better to hit hay stack rather than concrete wall.

The last example is decreasing momentum over short period of time which
will eventually produce the large amount of force. The example of this is the karate
athlete splits the large stack of brick by using her hand against the bricks with the
considerable momentum. In this case, the time of contact is too short and force of
impact is relatively large. That is why the brick is break.
Bouncing

Impulse is generally larger when that particular objects are bouncing .

For instance, you catch the flower pot that is falling from the self by hand. In this
case, you provide an impulse to decrease the momentum to zero. If you want to
throw the pot up, you need an additional impulse. That is why bouncing has greater
impulse than those that do not bounce.

Discussions of design

First Design
Discussion of First Design
At first, we choose soft drink bottle because it resists to a large amount of
pressure that can occur from the reaction of acetic acid and sodium bicarbonate or
as we know as baking soda. Also, the bottle is shaped in aerodynamic styles which
make it be able farther even in the windy condition. We design to use a balloon to
put baking soda in so that when it reacts, a balloon will keep the gas, thus reaction
occurs. The gas will store in it till the limitation of a balloon and as it releases, our
rocket would fly to the target precisely. We also use feature board to make wings of
the rocket that we can better control the direction of the rocket when launching. We
decided to put only three wings so that we can have space to place on the launcher.
The size of wings is decided by the compare to the bottle. The size of a wing is
shorter than the half of the length of the bottle. The wings will help the rocket to go
straight in the pathways that we want the rocket to go. We use tape to stick the wing
with the body of the rocket. The tape makes the surface of the rocket not smooth so
we try to find other material to stick the wing to the body and make the surface
smooth. We decided to put a cone on the top of the rocket so the wind can pass
through it smoothly and go further. The cone is made from the plastic from the bottle.
At first, we use the plastic from the second bottle that we cut the top part from to
make the cone but that pieces of plastic are curved so the cone is distorted and
make the rocket go in a different pathway. We use the top of the second soft drink
bottle and stick it to the end of the first bottle to make the shape of the rocket like the
rugby ball. We put the vinegar in the first soft drink bottle and the baking soda at the
top of the first bottle. When we put the rocket at the launcher, vinegar will react with
baking soda at the bottom of the bottle and produce carbon dioxide gas. Carbon
dioxide created in the bottle will act as the fuel to launch the rocket. We use the clay
to gravitated the rocket. It makes the rocket fall by facing down to the floor. We
decided to put the clay in the cone at the top of the rocket and increase the mass of
the rocket. The clay will increase the mass of the rocket so it can stay in the pathway.
The wind cannot blow the rocket and the rocket will hit the target. When we did the
first trial, we put too much sodium bicarbonate or baking soda so it becomes an
excess reagent. This tells us that we should calculate how much the reagent should
we use so we can save our money. We have calculated and found that 100 ml of
cooking vinegar react completely with 14 g of sodium bicarbonate or baking soda.
The cooking vinegar that we use is 5% concentration which means that in vinegar
100ml there are 5 grams of acetic acid. We decided that the rocket needs to have a
wing for balancing so we stick the wings to the body of the rocket. The next problem
that we face after we decided to put the wing on the rocket is the launcher. If we put
the 4 wings on the rocket, we cannot design the launcher of the rocket. So, we put
only 3 wings on the rocket. The wings are made of feature board and stick to the
body of the rocket by hot glue. The launcher made of polyvinyl chloride. We cut PVC
tube in half and stick it to a wood plate and we will adjust the angle of the launcher
by adjusting the angle of a wood plate. Our launcher can adjust into 3 angles which
are 30, 45, and 60 degrees. At first, we think that we should launch the rocket at 45
degrees because according to the projectile. When we launch the rocket at 45
degrees, the rocket will go furthest in horizontal path according to the projectile.
When we try to launch the rocket at 45 degrees, it goes too high and the wind will
easily blow it in a different direction so we decide to launch the rocket at 30 degrees.
The result of launch the rocket at 30 degrees is better than when we launch the
rocket at 45 degrees.

Latest design
Discussion
 After we test rocket for a few times, we see that the old design did not work
well. The old rocket could fly only few meters away from the launcher no matter how
much substance we increased from the previous trials. After those attempts that
failed to reach the target, we decided to use water bottle instead of soft drink bottle
and the result comes out so well. Through those trials to the trial that we use normal
bottle of water and work, we see some flaws that made our rocket not be able to fly
through the target precisely. Therefore, we decided to make new rocket that
improved and changed quite a few things.
First thing that we change is a head of the rocket. At first, we use a part of soft
drink bottle which is quite rough. This made the old design have so many curves at
the head of the rocket, thus cannot resist through the air well. At this time, we use
the water bottle that is smoother to make the head. This helps us in enclosing the
rocket which results in the head that is a point at the end of the head. The head of
the rocket that is well-enclosed and smooth help us in shaping rocket in better
aerodynamic styles which made it be able to resist and fly better in the windy
condition. We also use dough that is shaped like a head of the rocket to make it
balance and hit a target accurately and precisely. Moreover, it also helps rocket to
gravitate the rocket to the ground when it nearly hit the target and did not launch too
far way from the target that is set. The second thing that we change is the wing of
the rocket. At first, we used the wings that were quite large which made them have
more surface areas to encounter wind and pressure. Thus, it cannot fly so well in the
windy condition. At this time, we decide to use the wing that is longer and shallower
that will helps it in reducing air resistance and pressure. We also made sure that
wings were placed in the right position which meant that they were evenly spaced.
The last but very important is changing from soft drink to normal bottle of water. One
thing that we notice when we launch is that the chemical like the vinegar always
leaks before it fully reacts with the sodium bicarbonate or as known as baking soda.
We changed quite a few cap and noticed that most of the caps did not fit well with
soft drink bottle, hence chemical still kept leaking. By seeing this problem, we
decided to change to a normal water bottle to see if this can be used to solve a
problem or the result will remain the same. Surprisingly, the result came out very well
that even we use a plain water bottle that did not attach wings or head yet, it still
flies farther than soft drink bottle that is fully attached to both wings and head. This
made us decide to make a new rocket from a normal water bottle. By applying all
these changes to the rocket, we came up with the new design as you can see from
the picture. This design is good and can fly to the target precisely. Moreover, it gives
us quite a constant result which helps us in ensuring the accurate result in the day
that we actually launched our rocket. Also, it helps us in decreasing the amount of
chemical that we used in the previous design due to the efficiency in preventing
chemical to leak, the design that can resist to air and pressure and the weight that is
lighter than the previous design. We use only 25 grams of baking soda and 250 mL
of vinegar and the result comes out very good; all of the baking sodas are used up in
the reaction and only a little amount of vinegar is left. However, in the actual
demonstration day, the weather is in the windy condition. This makes our rocket was
not be able to reach the target. Therefore, we choose to increase the amount of
vinegar to at about 40 grams and adjust the launcher a little bit to make our rocket
reach target in which we reach point 4 in accuracy.

Data table
 Chemical equation: CH3COOH + NaHCO3 => NaC2H3O2 + H2O + CO2

Trial Vinegar Baking soda gas an dista hit

gle nce the
targe
t

volu Mw mol Ma Mw (g) mol mol Mw g

me ss
(g)

1 200 5% .166 20 84.007 .238 .166 44 7.304 45 8 F

2 200 5% .166 20 84.007 .238 .166 44 7.304 40 7.5 F

3 400 5% .332 40 84.007 .476 .332 44 14.608 45 7.5 F

4 400 5% .332 40 84.007 .476 .332 44 14.608 45 3 F

5 400 5% .332 40 84.007 .476 .332 44 14.608 45 0 F

6 480 5% .399 50 84.007 .595 .399 44 17.556 45 0 F

7 300 5% .249 50 84.007 .595 .249 44 10.956 45 5 F

8 250 5% .208 30 84.007 .357 .208 44 9.152 45 4 F

9 400 5% .332 50 84.007 .595 .332 44 14.608 30 13 F

10 400 5% .332 50 84.007 .595 .332 44 14.608 30 25 F

11 320 5% .266 35 84.007 .416 .266 44 11.704 30 20 ?

12 250 5% .208 25 84.007 .297 .208 44 9.152 45 20 ?

13 250 5% .208 25 84.007 .297 .208 44 9.152 30 19.5 ?

14 250 5% .208 25 84.007 .297 .208 44 9.152 30 19.5 ?

15 250 5% .208 25 84.007 .297 .208 44 9.152 30 21 ?

16 250 5% .208 25 84.007 .297 .208 44 9.152 30 20 ?

17 250 5% .208 25 84.007 .297 .208 44 9.152 30 19 F

18 250 5% .208 27 84.007 .321 .208 44 9.152 30 20 F

17 250 5% .208 30 84.007 .357 .208 44 9.152 30 19 F

18 250 5% .208 38 84.007 .452 .208 44 9.152 30 19 F

19 340 5% .283 35 84.007 .416 .283 44 12.452 30 19 F

20 340 5% .283 35 84.007 .416 .283 44 12.452 45 19 F

21 250 5% .208 35 84.007 .416 .208 44 9.152 45 20 T

22 250 5% .208 40 84.007 .476 .208 44 9.152 45 20 T

23 250 5% .208 40 84.007 .476 .208 44 9.152 45 20 T

 T = hit the target, F = miss the target, ? = didnt know is the rocket hit the
target or not
Mass of Rocket
Rocket 1: 118.56 g, Rocket 2: 104.16 g

Analysis of Data
The first 8 time of this experiment is failed because we use the first designed
rocket. The design of the rocket did not follow the aerodynamic theory so it resists
the air flow. And the launcher does not finish yet so we use another thing instead of
the launcher. We also didnt calculate the limiting and excess reagent when we did
the first 8 trials so the amount of vinegar and baking soda is not suitable for each
other. Also the first 8 trial, we did not use the rubber cap to stop the vinegar at the
end of the rocket and we did not use ladies stocking to put the baking soda inside
but we use the tissue to hold baking soda. Tissue cannot hold the baking soda inside
and the vinegar can hardly pass through the tissue to eat with baking soda so we try
to change the material use to keep the baking soda
The next 8 trial, we decided to change the design of our rocket to be like the
picture above. We change a lot of things as we already mentioned in the discussion
of design part. The result of changes is very impressive because it makes the rocket
cover the 20 meters distance. We also change and use the rubber cap to plug the
end of the rocket. This time we use the ladies stocking to carry the baking soda.
When we launch the rocket, we use the angle of 30 degrees because it looks
suitable. But according to the projectile pathway, the most suitable angle should be
45 degrees so we try both 30 degrees and 45 degrees. We can find the most
suitable amount of substance that we will use for the real trial. From the 6 trials, we
found that the most suitable amount of substance is 25 grams of baking soda with
250 ml of vinegar and the most suitable angle is 30 degree.
From the trial number 17-20, our rocket missed the target because of the wind
and sometimes the fuel needs to launch the rocket is not enough so the rocket did
not reach 20 meters. The rocket that can travel 20 meters is not straight to the target.
We also use 30 degrees for the launcher.
For trials number 21-23, our rocket hit the target. The rocket can hit the target
because there is no wind and there is enough fuel for the rocket to launch and hit the
target. We use 250 ml of vinegar with 40 g of baking soda and use 45 degrees of the
launcher.
Recommendation
Our group, Silver Bullet, had made two rockets and one launcher up for doing
the rocket experiment. We decide our rocket have sharp cone head and have three
wings to help the rocket fly better and reach the target. We also decorating our
rocket by spraying silver color and smear silver glitter on both the head and the wing.
The color of our rocket is the origin of our group name. We made up two rockets
because if one of the two rocket is broken, then there is a substituting one. So, we
do not have to make up the rocket again on the day that we do the experiment
because it is waste of time. However, both of our rockets have broken. It always
broke when the rocket was landing after we launch it in our experiment. This is
because our rocket hit and dart on the hard concrete floor. The parts that often broke
were the head (the head is broke out from the rocket or sometimes the sharp part of
our head was dented) and the wings (the wings were broke out from the rocket).
Another reason why it is broke is because the glue didnt stick much. We are using
the glue gun in sticking. At first, we thought that all the part will remain on our rocket
which our group thought wrong. Therefore, if we need to made the rocket again next
time we need to find the glue that is stickier than the one that we use or we need to
add much more glue. Also, the spray for decorating the rocket was peeled out of our
rocket. We suggest that next time, we need to use the color that will not be abraded
easily. All of this is the error in the rocket part. On the other hand, our launcher also
has an error. The error is that out PVC tube for placing the rocket before depart was
broke out from its place. This is also because of the glue. The glue wasnt stuck that
much which made the launcher broke. So, we decided that next time we will stick the
PVC tube and the wood of the launcher together by using the screw instead of the
glue. This will make our launcher last longer than on the present one.
Conclusion
Due to the physic theory, we cannot hit the target at first because we didnt put
enough of baking soda which is a limit reagent of the chemical reaction. We had to put
baking soda more for increasing the pressure of the carbon dioxide gas so, our rocket can fly
farther.
After we try and try in making our rocket to reach the target. Finally, our rocket hit the
target four on the last day. On that time that it reaches the target four, we used 250 mL of
vinegar 40 g of baking soda. Before, using the baking Soda for 40g, we had tried on
changing the baking soda amount for 6 times. At first, the amount of baking soda were 25
grams. Then we changed to 27 grams, 30 grams, 35 grams, 38 grams, and finally to the
most effective result on hitting the target which was 40 grams. Also, We have tried on setting
the angle for two angles which is 30 degrees and 45 degrees. From the result, setting the
angle of the launcher to be 45 degrees was the best angle for doing the rocket experiment.
From all of the result that our rocket reaches the target(target 2, 3, and 4) were set up to use
45 degrees. For the vinegar, we always use 250mL in all trial. However, for the baking soda,
when it reach target 2 we used 35 grams but when our rocket hit target 3 and 4 we used the
best amount of baking soda which was 40 grams. On departing the rocket, after the
chemical reacted to each other, our rocket soars up high and landing just 20 meters on the
target.
However, how hard we try to reach the target five, its failure because due to the
external factor that we cannot control, the wind. Since our experiment area was the open
space, the wind is always changed whether in the morning or afternoon. We cannot predict
which way the wind will come so, even though we try to put more baking soda, but the wind
is stronger than the previous time, the rocket will not hit the target for sure. According to the
data table, after we hit the target two, we put more baking soda. At this point, our rocket hit
four. Then, we tried again. This time, it hit three. Why? It is because of the wind.