Ana de Freitas

Period B3
Doug Hendricks
AMES

ABSTRACT:
The overall idea of this lab was to find out how high some rockets were going to reach
when launched. The Honors Physics class did a series of sub-labs that combined to make this
huge lab report. Each part contributed and the class came up with predicted heights. These
predicted heights were then compared to the actual heights. The numbers had a lot of error
because in both cases, the rockets are thought of as to be going linearly upward, when that
wasnt the case. Although the numbers were off, the ideas, and the learning was amazing. This
lab did a good job of going over key concepts and using our knowledge. It was a learning
experience.
INTRODUCTION:
This lab is a great lab because it goes over much of what has been covered in class. Its
awesome, because the equations that the students have learned can be used in real life situations
such as when launching rockets. Some brief words and concepts must be understood, here are a
few of them.
- Kinematics: study of motion
the study of forces acting on an object and how it affects its motion - Dynamics:
- Impulse: Force multiplied by time
- Momentum: mass multiplied by velocity
- Drag force: a fancy term for air resistance
a constant that can be found when the drag force and the - Drag Coefficient:
velocity is known and its value depends on the size and shape of the object

The impulse-momentum theorem is derived and used in this lab. It will be on the back part of
Numerical iterations is the process of using this report. Numerical iteration is also good to know.
multiple equations in a sequence to solve for an answer that would be difficult to solve without
splitting it up. That method is very helpful, and is used in the numerical model lab. Of couse,
since we are dealing with rockets and engines, there are different types of engines. An example
of one of the many engines is a A-8 engine. The A represents the impulse, and the 8 represents
the average force. A engines have an impulse of 2.5 N*s, B engines have an impulse of 5 N*s, C
engines have an impulse of 10 N*s. Each letter upgrade doubles the impulse.

ENGINE THRUST ANALYSIS:
The big picture of this project is to find out how high the rockets are going to go. Itll be
a series of small lab reports combined to make one huge report. This first sub-lab report is called
Thrust Analysis. The purpose of the lab was to find out what type of engine was used for the
rocket. The equipment use was as follows: a cart with a box on top. The box had a hole where
the mystery engine was placed. A ramp for the car to slide/roll on. Duct tape, to keep things in
place. A digital force gage to measure the push or pull force. A calculator with the program
Easydata which graphed the data. In order to light up the rocket, a long electrical wire with
phosphorus at the ends was used in order for it to flare and light up the rocket. The plug held
everything together. That was all that was used. When doing the real launch, a real rocket will be
used instead of the cart with the box on top.
The class then went outside to set up the equipment and do the lab. The ramp was put on
the concrete. The car was put on top of the ramp and the electrical wires were being connected.
Before any of that, it was important to zero the gage in order to get accurate results. The
calculator was set to record the data every 1/tenth of a second. It recorded 100 samples, and the
experiment length was set to 10 seconds. The trigger threshold was -1 and the prestore
percentage was set to 10. The forces are being treated as absolute values. The negative numbers
is just stating the direction. The engine was then ignited, an explosion followed, which forced the
car towards the force gage. If this was done with the rocket, it would go upwards.
The data was then graphed using a force vs time graph. The area under the curve would
be the impulse. Midpoint rectangles were used to calculate the area. The area was calculated to
be 4.024 N*s. By rounding the number to 5 N*s, the engine type was figured to be a B engine.
The average force was figured out by adding all the forces and dividing by the amount of forces.
The average force was 3.77 Newtons, which rounded to 4 Newtons. The mystery engine was a
B-4 engine.
DRAG FORCE (AIR RESISTANCE):
The purpose of the lab was to calculate the Drag coefficient of the rocket and explain how it
was done. The drag coefficient would be needed in order to figure out how high the rocket will
go. It must be calculated and approximated because the rocket that is going to be used for the
launch is slightly bigger and has a larger surface area then the one that was used in this lab. Air
resistance is also known as drag force. Physicists experimentally found the equation for drag
force, it was Drag force is proportional to the velocity squared or Fdrag V
2

In order to write
this as an equality, we must include a constant Kd which stands for drag coefficient. Kds value
depends on the surface area and shape of the object. By knowing the value of the drag
coefficient, the drag force can be easily calculated at any velocity. The equation would then be
Fdrag = Kd * V
2

The next part of the lab consisted on some critical thinking and trigonometric level math.
The value of the drag coefficient (Kd) was found experimentally. It is found by putting the
rocket inside a wind tunnel, measuring the force that acts on the rocket when the wind is pushing
at it at some known velocity. Using the given equation, Fdrag = Kd * V
2
" to find Kd. Before
using the wind tunnel, we used a simulation similar to the wind tunnel in order to find out an
equation for the drag force. This same equation would then be used in the wind tunnel procedure.
The example was setup to be a ball attached to a string hanging off a surface. The ball was then
moved to the side by wind pushing on it. If the angle the ball is pushed to and the mass of the
ball is known, then it is possible to find the magnitude of the force of the wind on the ball. Using
Newtons 2
nd
law one can solve for the force. The first step was to calculate the force of the wind
pushing the ball to the side, Fd. The angle is called theta (). This angle represents the angle at
which the ball was moved by the force of the wind. Then a free-body diagram was drawn,
showing the three forces on the ball: T, Mg, and Fd. The tension forces were broken into its
vertical and horizontal components, Tcos and Tsin.




By using Newtons 2
nd
law, force is equal to mass multiplied by the acceleration, two equations
can be derived for both directions (Y and X). After you get two equations, you use substitution
method and get a final equation for the drag force (Fd). The final equation for the drag force is
Fd = mgTan the math is shown on the following math page with step by step detail and
calculations. There will also be a page with diagrams of the equipment and the lab.
Looking back at the original equation Fdrag = Kd * V
2
There were two unknowns (Kd and
Fdrag). Using the Drag force equation derived above, it can be plugged in to the original
equation, therefore having only one unknown. This allows for the drag coefficient to be solved.
The equation would look like Kd = Fdrag/V
2
and one would then input the derived value for
Fdrag, being mgTan. By doing this, one can find the drag coefficient of the object they are
interested in.
Using a wind tunnel, the angle at which the rocket moves can be calculated. The rocket was
attached to a string therefore the string moving creates and angle at which one can measure with
a protractor. The wind tunnel has honeycomb pipes, allowing wind to drift more smoothly and
evenly. When measuring the angle, it seemed to be 27 degrees. By plugging in this angle
measurement into Fd = mgTan the drag force can be found. The velocity of the wind tunnel
was given to the class, V = 15 m/s. If the drag force and velocity are known, the drag coefficient
can be calculated. The mass of the rocket was .061 kg. The drag force came out to be 3.046, 3.05
Newtons when rounded to three significant figures. The drag coefficient was calculated to be
.001.
Because the real rocket is going to have a larger surface area, the constant is going to be
slightly bigger. This lab gives us an estimate of what the constant of air resistance will be for the
real rocket. The class estimated the drag coefficient to be .002 and maybe even .003 or .004 for
larger rockets.
EQUIPMENT:
-Wind tunnel


- Protractor

NUMERICAL MODEL:
In order to solve most problems such as finding the maximum height of a rocket, many
steps are needed. This lab is an excellent example of one thing helping or leading to an answer.
Numerical iteration is a method in which one thing (in this case, a value or equation) helps solve
the next problem. Using Microsoft Excel, data was entered in certain columns. Many of the
columns were already programmed to solve for certain values, but the students were expected
to know how to solve for every value by hand. The students were first given a writeable
spreadsheet and solved for the first few columns. The spreadsheet has all the information it
needs.
On the top of the spreadsheet, one must input which rocket theyre are calculating the
maximum height for and what type of engine it is using. Under that, the mass of the rocket with
the engine mass included needs to be included and it must be in kilograms since we are using
standard physics units. The drag coefficient (Kd) would be under that. The mass and the drag
coefficient will change according to what rocket and engine is being used. The thrust is shown
in relation to the time. The thrust depends on which engine is being launched so it changes
accordingly. The Average thrust is literally the average, the equation is (Thrust1 + thrust2)/2.
The Drag force is calculated by using Fd = Kd*V
2
. The Average Net Force is found by using
Average thrust mg Fd this shows that the average thrust in needed in order to calculate
the average net force. The Average Net Impulse is found by using the following equation, Net
force * t. The initial velocity is basically the last rows final velocity and is repeated every
time. The final velocity is found with the following formual, Vi + Fnet * t/m. There is yet
another example of how everything is relating to other things and helping each one be solved.
The average velocity is found by adding your initial velocity and your final velocity, then dividing
by 2, or the formula which is used Vi + Vf/2. The final height, was calculated by the following
formula, Height initial + Average Velocity * t. The calculated height would be added to the
previous height because it has already gone to a certain height, but now its even higher than it
was.
In order to find the maximum height of the rocket, the largest value in the Final height
column will be the max height. After learning how to do this by hand, the students used excel
and only had to input the Rocket type, the engine type, the mass of the rocket with the engine,
the drag coefficient, and the thrust values for each specific engine. The spreadsheet included a
page with all the information needed, such as the masses of the rockets and engines, the
thrusts of each engine type and even some nifty force vs. time graphs of each engine type.
Literally, all that had to be done was plug and the program chugged. The required criteria was
to find the maximum heights for one of the rocket of choice using an A, B, and C engine. The
class was also assigned to find the max height of the small white rocket with the A-3 engine.
So what the student would do, is find the mass of the small white rocket, add the mass of the
A-3 engine and then convert to kilograms. The drag coefficient was then calculated to be .001
because the rocket is smaller. The thrust data was copied and pasted from the Thrust and
Mass data tab to the Flight Analysis Thrust column. The program did the math and executed
Final heights at specific times. The max height, which is the largest height turned out to be 23
m. The Red/Silver rocket was the rocket of my choice. The A-8 engine had a total mass of 0.08
kg, and the drag coefficient was 0.004. The maximum height for the A-8 engine was 17 m. The
B-6 engine type had a total mass of 0.083 kg and a drag coefficient of 0.004. The max height for
the A-8 engine was 31 m. The C-6 engine had a total mass of 0.089 kg and a drag coefficient of
0.004. The max height for the C-6 engine is 64 m. Air resistance is a huge factor. If zero is put in
as the drag coefficient, the max heights increase by about four times what they were with air
resistance. An example would be the Red/Silver rocket with a C-6 engine and drag coefficient of
.003, the max height was said to be 74 m, but when there is no air resistance, therefore the
drag coefficient would be 0, the max height is about 466 m. That is about 6 times the height
with air resistance. This shows why air resistance cannot be ignored. The predicted heights are
substantially higher.
ACTUAL FLIGHT RESULTS:
This lab actually was the launch lab. The students went outside and launched each rocket
up into the air. To calculate the heights of each of the rockets, the class did a sample problem on
the whiteboard. The sample problem consisted of a person calculating the angle at which the
rocket goes up with a specialized protractor; the person was 70 meters away from the rocket and
the final height would be added to the height of the person since the angle is measured from eye
sight. The side opposite to the angle would be the height. Since there is a known angle and
adjacent side, the class used tangent to find the opposite side (the height). Tangent is equal to the
opposite side divided by the adjacent side. The opposite side result would then be added to the
height of the person, and then that would be the final height. So, in the problem our angle was 55
degrees and the adjacent side was 70 meters long. By plugging those numbers in Tan0 =
opposite/adjacent the students can find the opposite side length (the height). In that case the
height was 100 meters.





The only problem with this method is that the rocket will not go up in a straight line or
rarely does. There were three students calculating the angles from three different places in order
to get more accurate results since the rocket will most likely move nonlinearly. To take the angle
in the real world, a protractor with a string and weight was used. The string would align with one
of the angle measurements. That angle would then be subtracted from 90 degrees because it is
perpendicular at 90 degrees to the ground. So since the rocket will not go straight up, the class
agreed to take multiple angles and average them. Each of the three students who were measuring
the angles were about 50 meters away from the launch pad. An equilateral triangle was formed
with the three students, having the launch pad in the center. Multiple rockets were launched and
their angles were recorded from all three students.






After launching the rockets the students went inside the classroom and the angle
measurements were announced. Some angles were over 90 degrees (over their head), these
angles were ignored. When averaging the angles the rockets with over 90 degree angles had to
sum up the other two angles and divide by two for their final average. These angles were then
averaged for each particular rocket and engine type. The following table shows the data
recorded and the calculated averages of the angles. It also shows the predicted and actual height
values. The calculated heights were added to the height of the persons eye since the angle was
measure from eye height. In this case, the class decided to have the average human height be 1.7
meters. This was then added to whatever the average height was.
Engine and
Rocket
Angle
1
Angle
2
Angle
3
Average
Angle
Calculated Height
(Meters)
Predicted Height
(Meters)
A3
Small White
30 34 25 29.6 or
30
30.7 or
31 With
Significant Figures
23.22
23 With
Significant
Figures
C6 Red /
Silver
87 89 75 83.6 or
84
478
480 With
Significant Figures
63.47
63 With
Significant
Figures
C6 Black
and Red
88 <90 70 79 259
260 With
Significant Figures
61.59
62 With
Significant
Figures
C6 Big
White
75 75 <90 75 189
190 With
Significant Figures
72.97
93 With
Significant
Figures
B6 Red and
Yellow
78 77 65 73.33 or
73
166
160 With
49.55
50 With

Obviously the heights were not the same. There are a few things that must be
taken into consideration. The overall problem is that the rocket did not go straight up, which
alters the result from the measurements. The rockets went in a few different directions. Theres
also human error. The angles calculated were not as accurate since it was just calculated by our
eyesight, but the average was good enough. The main thing was that the rockets did not go
straight up, and it so happened that the rockets went in non-linear paths. So the heights that
would be calculated are not accurate at all. The heights could have been recorded by an altimeter
which record the altitude, but is a very expensive device, so it was too risky.

Pictures from Launch Day:
(taken by students) teyanna meyers & Isaac Leyva



CONCLUSION:
Significant Figures Significant
Figures
C6 Red and
Yellow
<90 88 80 84 478
480 With
Significant Figures
97.34
97 With
Significant
Figures
The predicted heights and the actual heights were very off. The overall problem was that
the equations were designed for linear upward motion. But when actually launching the rockets,
they did not go straight up. They curved tremendously, therefore the numbers arent even
reasonable or accurate. In the actual flight results, the numbers are shown to have huge
differences.

REFLECTION:
Overall this project was awesome. Ive never launched a rocket before, so it was very
exciting. I like how we can apply physics to real life situations. Even though our numbers didnt
match our predicted results, it was still a learning experience, and it was fun! I think actually
doing something and testing it and seeing how things work, helps someone understand
something better. At least for me it does. The only thing that I had a little trouble with is trying to
make this all third person. Its just always been a weakness of mine.