Outline:

Cover letter (Math)

Calculations: Math
Reflection: Math
Reflection: Physics

Math Cover Letter

The objective of this project is to design a successful water rocket and to find the best
ways to describe that rocket in flight. Some important components in that description are
position, velocity, and acceleration. Position is the location of the rocket at a given time.
Velocity is the rate at which an object is moving at a given time, with a direction. Last but
not least, acceleration is the rate of change of velocity over time. Another important
component to describing our rockets in flight is quadratic functions. A quadratic function
is a function that forms an arc when graphed. It also has an exponent no higher than 2.
Quadratic functions are usually needed when describing a rocket or other projectile in
motion because they form arcs when graphed, and the vast majority of projectiles travel
in an arc. But most of these things that we’ve discussed so far happen during or after the
launch. What about the majority of the project, the stuff that happens before the
launch? Most of that can be confined in the Engineering Design Process. The Engineering
Design Process is composed of seven steps that follow a very intuitive and practical path.
The first step is Ask. This is the step of the process where the need and constraints of
the engineering challenge are identified. The second step is Research, which is relatively
self-explanatory. Possible solutions to the challenge are identified and further research
into the challenge is conducted. The third step is very closely intertwined with the second
one: Imagine. Imagine is the brainstorming step of the process, where possible solutions
are thrown out there, ideally based on the research yielded from the previous step. The
next step is Plan. This is where one Imagined idea is selected, and specifics are identified
and thought out. This is a step that will be very important when you move on. The fifth
step is where you finally get to get hands on: Create. Create is one of the most important
and also lengthiest steps, where all the planning and research is finally brought into reality
and a physical form. The next step is pretty intuitive: Test. In Test, you get to test the
product you created, and make observations about what you need to improve. The next
step is even more intuitive: Improve. In this step, you refine your product based on your
results and observations from the Test phase. That’s the last step.
 Calculations (Math)
Max height: To calculate the max height of our rocket I used SOH CAH TOA with a
drawing of a right triangle that represented the sort of system of our rocket. The sides
of the triangle represent the different values in this
situation. The unknown angle in the bottom left is 64
degrees for our rocket. The hypotenuse is pretty much
useless in this situation, so I ignored it. The adjacent side
is 100 feet, because that’s how far the angle
measurement was from the rocket (The rocket launched
from the right angle). The opposite side is what I needed
to figure out, because that’s the max height of the
rocket. This is relatively simple to figure out using SOH
CAH TOA. I used Tangent, because it uses the opposite side, which we want, and the
adjacent side, which we know. Plugging in the angle and the 100 feet gave me this equation:
100 * tan (64) = y/100. We want the y by itself so we can put this in a calculator, and we
can do that by multiplying both sides by 100. That gives us y = 100 * tan (64). Entering this
in a calculator gives me y = 205.03 feet. But, the inclinometer, the device used to measure
the angle, is 4.75 feet off the ground. So, that lifts the whole triangle 4.75 feet off the
ground. The real max height is 209.78 feet.
Time of max height: To calculate the time of max height, we have to go to the video
of the rocket’s flight and count the frames from takeoff to max height. I counted 69
frames. These videos were filmed at 30 frames per second, which is standard for an
iPhone. I want that in seconds, though, so I divided 69 frames by 30 frames per second
and got 2.3 seconds for time of max height. I also used the video and frame-counting to
find the total flight time, which is 14.83 seconds.
Initial velocity: Initial velocity is the lengthiest process here. We have to use an
equation and solve for a specific value in that equation. The equation is:
h(t) = -½(g)(t)^2 + V0 (t) + y0. This equation lets us solve for the initial velocity given some
of these other variables. The variables we know are:
t: 2.3 sec, the time of max height
g: 32 ft/sec, the acceleration due to gravity
y0: 1.5 ft, the height of the rocket on the launcher
V0: This is the initial velocity, the value I want to solve for
h(t): 209.78 ft, the max height of the rocket
I can plug all these values into the equation to get it looking like this:
209.78 = -½ (32) (2.3) + V0 (2.3) +1.5.
The first step is to take the derivative of this equation, which changes it to this:
209.78 = -16 (2.3)^2 + V0 (2.3) +1.5
Now I can solve for V0. I can just keep simplifying the equation down and then solve for V0
when it’s completely simplified:
209.78 = -16 (2.3)^2 + V0 (2.3) +1.5
209.78 = -84.64 + V0 (2.3) + 1.5 | Multiplying the -16 and 2.3^2 together
209.78 = -83.14 + V0 (2.3) | Adding the 1.5
292.92 = V0 (2.3) | Adding the -83.14
127.35 = V0 | Dividing by the 2.3
And there you have it. The initial velocity of our rocket is 127.35 feet per second.
Theoretical flight time: This requires getting into some quadratics. First I wrote
out the height given time formula, which as I said earlier, is:
h(t) = -½ (32) t^2 + 127.35 (t) +1.5.
I can put in the 127.35 because now I know the initial velocity. No more V0. I wrote this
out so I can get all the variables to plug into the quadratic formula. The standard form of
a quadratic is also necessary to determine what the variables are. The standard form of a
quadratic is ax^2 + bx + c. I need to write both of these out to determine what the values
are for the a, b, and c. The a always comes before the x^2 term, or in this case the t^2
term. Looking at the equation, the term before the t^2 is -½ (32), which is equal to -16. So
my a=-16. The b term always comes before the x by itself, or in this case, the t by itself.
Looking at the equation, this looks like it’s 127.35. So my b=127.35. The c term is always
by itself, and the only term in that equation that’s by itself is the 1.5. So my c=1.5. Now
that I have my a, b, and c, I can plug them into the quadratic formula:

With my values in it, that becomes:

I can put the a, b, and c into a quadratic formula calculator and get two values: x =
-0.01 and x = 7.97. The negative value can’t be right, because you can’t have negative time.
So the theoretical flight time of our rocket is 7.97 seconds. Obviously this is incorrect
because the actual flight time is 14.83 seconds. The theoretical flight time is if there was
no air resistance and no parachute.

Reflection (Math)
-What challenges did you encounter in this project and how did you navigate those
challenges?
The biggest challenge I encountered during this project was being gone for the
first two days of building. My partner and I didn’t communicate very well, so not much got
done. When I got back, the rocket wasn’t where I wanted it to be, and my partner had cut
our pressure chamber. I navigated this very difficult challenge by working hard for the
next few days, and communicating with my partner about what I wanted to do and what
she could do. That extra effort and communication ended up getting us to a very good
point with our rocket. Another challenge that we encountered was not being able to go with
our initial idea of a loose nose cone/parachute design because of the complexity and the
lack of materials. We navigated this challenge by doing a complete redesign of our rocket
and going with a backslider design. This also ended up being a very effective solution, and
the backslider was easy and worked very well.
-What were your successes in this project and how would you relay those successes to
next year’s sophomores?
A definite success of this project for me was the complete redesign of our rocket
that we had to do. We communicated very well about what we wanted to do and divided up
the work for the redesign. The loose nose cone design was difficult to do and in the
competition, didn’t work very well. I would recommend that the sophomores go with a
backslider design if they don’t feel very confident in their abilities as engineers. Another
success of this project that I want to impart to the upcoming sophomores is our laser-cut
fins. A lot of groups hand-cut their fins, which is alright but not amazing. Our smaller,
laser-cut fins ended up working super well. I want to tell the sophomores that if they want
their fins to work well, make them on the smaller side, and make sure to laser-cut them.
The laser cutter is precise and makes all the fins exactly the same. It’s also easier.
-What was a turning point for you in this project and why?
A turning point for me in this project was the first time we test-launched our
rocket. I had pretty low expectations and just wanted to see if it would get off the
ground. But, when it went super high in the air and the backslider worked perfectly, I saw
real potential for a rocket that wouldn’t embarrass me and my partner at exhibition. That
was when I became invested in this project and stopped seeing it as sort of a burden,
which was how I saw the very similar rocket project I did in seventh grade. This
successful launch gave me hope for this project, and that was a turning point.
-If you were to do this project again, what would you do differently and why?
If I was going to do this project again, I would make sure to be on task during work
time, because then I can get things done faster and have more time for refinement. I
would also make sure to use glue instead of tape, because glue doesn’t come loose. I
learned the hard way during exhibition that taped things get crooked, which messes with
the flight of the rocket. That leads into my next thing that I would do differently, which
is to make sure to be very precise. We were kind of haphazard during the building process
of the rocket, which led to some errors and an exhibition flight that could have been a lot
better if we had been precise with our nose cone alignment and used glue.