Rockets Away:Quadratics and Newton’s Third Law of Motion

Background:

Sir Isaac Newton (1643 – 1727) was an Englishphysicist, mathematician, astronomer ,natural philosopher ,alchemist,andtheologianand one of the most influential menin human history. HisPhilosophiæ NaturalisPrincipia Mathematica, published in 1687, is considered to be the mostinfluential book in thehistory of science, laying the groundwork for mostof classical mechanics. In this work, Newton describeduniversal gravitationand the threelaws of motionwhich dominated the scientific view of the physical universefor the next three centuries.

Newton's laws of motion can be qualitatively summarized by the statement that changes in motionof objects are caused by forces acting on them. Thus, any object experiencing acceleration isnecessarily under the influence of a force.

The launching of a rocket can be explained by Newton’s third law of motion: for every action thereis an equal and opposite reaction. On a very basic level, a rocket is a pressurized gas chamber. Asgas escapes through a small opening at one end, the rocket must be propelled in the oppositedirection as stated by Newton’s third law. The force that propels the rocket is called thrust, as notedin the diagram

below:The flight of a model rocket follows a parabolic path and exhibits projectile motion. A projectile isan object upon which the only force acting is gravity. Once the rocket burns its fuel, inertia carriesthe rocket upward until the pull of gravity forces it back to earth. The rocket’s projectile motion can be described using a simple quadratic function.

Investigation:Part 1: Constructing a Rocket

To better understand the relationship between quadratics and Newton’s Third Law of Motion, youwill construct and fly a water bottle rocket. The rocket must meet the following guidelines:

•

Body must be made from a 2 liter soda bottle

•

Fins (four works well) can be constructed from heavy cardboard, attached with duct tape,and should not extend beyond the neck of the bottle

•

Nose cone should have a small mass (a small bag of sand inside the cone works well)

•

The body

must

remain water-tight; do not cut or hot-glue the bottle

•

Remember:

the bottom of the bottle is the top of the rocket; do not cover the bottle opening

Part 2: Flying the Rocket

You will have one opportunity to launch your rocket. For your flight, you will need to record thefollowing data:

Live Flight DataVolume of Water (mL)Pressure (psi)Time Up (sec)(to nearest tenth)Time Down (sec) (tonearest tenth)

Your flight will also be recorded on video. When you are filming, be sure to capture the entireflight path so that you can extract time data from the video.

Part 3: Describing Flight Mathematically—Quadratic Functions

Mathematicians have developed a formula for describing projectile motion. This quadratic functioncan be expressed as:

00221

)8.9()(

ht vt t h

++−=

t = time in secondsh(t) = height in meters after a certain amount of time: example h(2) means height after 2 seconds.v

= starting vertical velocity or vertical velocity in m/s when time = 0 secondsh

= starting height in meters or height when time = 0 secondsacceleration due to gravity is -9.8 m/s

If we assume that the initial height and velocity are zero, the maximum height of the rocket can becalculated using Time Up and Time Down. To calculate the maximum height of your rocket basedon Time Up and Time Down, you will need to determine the vertex of the parabola. Explain why.1.Write the expression for finding the x-coordinate of the vertex of a parabola.2.Substitute your known values for variables “

” and “

” (“

” = time up and “

” can bedetermined form the equation at the top) to determine variable “

” in #1.3.Using the standard form for a quadratic

cbxax y

++=

substitute appropriate values for the variables

and

. Then rewrite your equation using

h(t)

for