Launch #2

Today, we had our second trial for launching our two-liter bottle rockets. The trial runs were somewhat successful, and our group was able to launch each bottle on its first attempt. For our first bottle, there were no modifications added. The whole entire launching was basically the same as yesterday except our water bottle rocket was set up a bit crooked, which is why our bottle landed in a tree and stayed there for a few minutes. For our second bottle, we added some modifications, which included the fins towards the bottom of the water bottle for stability. We attached three fins made of cardboard to the bottle using the hot glue gun, so we would have an idea of what this sort of modification would do to the rocket launching. As seen in our video, the water bottle spent less time in the air from our previous trial because of the addition of mass (four second launching). Next time, we plan on using a parachute in order to prolong the amount of time our water bottle rocket experiences. We will also make the fins a little curved, so that it creates more drag when coming down making the rocket stay airborne longer. We learned from physics class that you need to make the rocket longer, so it can be more stable because of inertia and also there needs to be more mass placed on the top of the rocket. Because of this information, our group places on placing a cone on top of the rocket to make our launching more successful. We will surely be prepared for our third launching and cannot wait to display our designing skills.