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Water Rockets...

F

falias

Golden Member
Has anyone had to make these in physics or something? I have to make one (with a 2 liter bottle), and I've already ran a program to figure out the best amount of water to put in for the best results in time and height. If you made a rocket that flew well, what kind of things did you have on it to improve it (i.e. fins, nose)? Thanks for the help.
 
Originally posted by: falias
Any serious or non-ricer suggestions? Everybody who's ever taken physics has to have done this.
Click to expand...

i took physics and i never did it :-\ explain it to me and i might come up with a great idea
 
I used to do it all the time when I was a kid, not for physics class though. 😛

We'd experiment with different ammounts of water..

We used a mini 12V air compressor instead of a bike tire pump. 😀
 
Originally posted by: Lithium381
Originally posted by: falias
Any serious or non-ricer suggestions? Everybody who's ever taken physics has to have done this.
Click to expand...

i took physics and i never did it :-\ explain it to me and i might come up with a great idea
Click to expand...

Yeah, the basic idea is you take a two liter bottle, turn it upside down so the cap is facing down. You have some water in the bottle, it get's loaded on a hose that pumps air into it, adding pressure. Then you release the bottle causing the pressure to push out with the water, making the go up. What I'm looking for is any designs that can be added to the outside of the bottle to make it go faster or higher.

 
Originally posted by: TranSoft
get a Type-S sticker
Click to expand...

what, a Type Stupid? 😛

Best thing you can do is to keep its course from diverging from the straight and narrow - fins, and maybe make it a bit bottom-heavy. keep the head from changing course, you can control the entire rocket.
 
Hmmm.. If you could make a release mechanism, it would be a lot better. We just used a cork and a ball-pumper needle. When the pressure got to a certain point, the cork would fly out and the bottle would go skyward.

I'm not sure how high we'd gotten it to go.. probably 30-40' easily.
 
Originally posted by: Eli
I used to do it all the time when I was a kid, not for physics class though. 😛

We'd experiment with different ammounts of water..

We used a mini 12V air compressor instead of a bike tire pump. 😀
Click to expand...

Yeah, apparently at 50psi it will do the best with 20% water, where time ends up being 3.19 sec and height being 56.96 m. I'm also going to be puting a little parachute man inside the nose which will fall out of the rocket and float down, increasing my time.

 
can you modify the bottle in any way? maybe check out different brands, see if the plastic is thicker or not, maybe some are slightly narrower than others, i dont' know, but it's a thought!
 
maybe a rudder so it goes strighter, or a spoiler kit whichever you like more 😛

(talking about fins, damn my english)
 
Originally posted by: Lithium381
can you modify the bottle in any way? maybe check out different brands, see if the plastic is thicker or not, maybe some are slightly narrower than others, i dont' know, but it's a thought!
Click to expand...

Yeah, you can modify it, you don't have to only use one bottle (it only needs one functional bottle for the water). You can add extra pieces of more bottle to make it taller. Does anyone know if it might fly better if the rocket itself is longer, or should I keep it at one bootle length?
 
COuld you scratch lines in the bottle? Perhaps making it spin (with the lines in the bottle) would make it cut through the air better?
 
definately use fins and a nose cone. You might also want to add a little weight to the nose to keep it steady. not too much though. In one failed experimental rocket of mine, i tried putting a restricter O plate at the opening of the bottle, to slow down the flow a little in an attempt to prolong thrust. But either I restricted it too much or put too much weight at the the nose... the rocket just went horizontal. 🙁

-patchy
 
My team put a parachute in the nose cone so that when it hit the apex of the flight it deployed and slowed the descent.

Yeah, that didn't work to well. It deployed, but the lines got all tangled.
 
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