On the first day of launching, Makana depicted how the rocket flew into the air crooked, but quickly spiraled towards the ground. She suggests that having a center mass would so that the rocket will fall onto the side that is attached to the mass.
On the second day of launching, Makana constructed two fins made of construction paper to attach to the mid section of the rocket. Unfortunately, the two fins didn’t help during the launch and Makana concluded that the fins may have been placed to high on the rocket or the fins should be made with a heavier material.
On the third day of launching, modifications were done. We attaching four clear plastic fins onto the rocket and helped the rocket shoot straight into the air. A parachute made out of plastic bags was also added, but the cone couldn’t encase the entire parachute in it. It flew quite high, but landed behind of Konia, therefore, we couldn’t get an accurate timing.
On the fourth day, we made a larger cone, to incorporate the entire parachute in it, but it did not give the parachute a chance to deploy. As a result, our rocket was lost on the roof of Midkiff. Although we suffered a devastating lost, our rocket stayed in the air for 5.3 seconds.
Finally, the last day to launch came with its time requirement of 10 seconds to stay in the air.Makana and I took our newly built rocket to launch. We had recreated our first rocket, with the four equidistant plastic fins and plastic bag parachute, but we also added mass atop the cone and added more water in our rocket. On the first trial, our rocket stayed up in the air for about 3 seconds. By our fourth trial, we stayed in the air for about 10.8 seconds. Being even more ambitious, we launched again, but it only stayed in the air for 9.8 seconds. Our hard work paid off because we had made the 10-second requirement while learning the trajectory of water rockets.
I learned that fins can help direct the rocket to shoot straight up into the air and that the parachute should be made in a long rectangle shape ,rather than in a perfect square, so that it can catch the air better in flight.
Your idea to extend the rocket even further by adding the second bottle was very innovative. My partners and I were trying to increase the length of the rocket by adding a long cone as the rocket nose with your idea not even crossing our minds. It is a good way to create stability. Good job with achieving your 10 second goal. Next time, if there is one, we will use your idea of adding another bottle to modify our rocket because it was a very good one. :)
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