Steps to making a water bottle rocket!!!
1- Take two 2 Liter bottles
-Bottle one- Use duct tape to tape the outsides of the bottle to make it sturdy.
-Bottle two- Cut the bottle into three pieces and duct tape the middle piece to bottle one to increase the length of the rocket to increase stability.
2- Cut a folder into three equal triangles and fold them at the middle to form two right triangles each. Tape them to the bottle to make the fins. Fins help to increase stability!
3- Use a handful of marbles, stick them in a Ziploc bag, and place it in the opening of bottle two. Use the top of bottle two and stick it on top of the opening of bottle two to make it look like a dome on top of the marbles. Tape it to the inside of the rocket! The marbles help to distribute the weight on both ends to increase stability and the dome like bottle part helps to keep the marbles attached to the rocket.
4- To make the parachute, take a small garbage bag and cut it into a square. Tape the corners of the square and the middle of the sides so you have 8 pieces of tape. Repeat so that the tape is on the other side of the bag as well. Use a hole puncher to hole punch the taped area and tie pieces of string to through the hole. The parachute slows down the rocket as it falls and increases the time. Use the ends of the string and tape it to the inside of the rocket.
5- Take a cone and stick model magic clay into the tip of the cone to make a nose cone. The nosecone helps with the stability when it flies!
6- Add water, pump it, and you're set!
Our rocket didn't fly as well as I hoped it was. After we released it, the rocket released water and flew straight into the sky. We wanted the nosecone to fall off as the rocket began to slow down in the air, however the nosecone would usually come off as it was going up. Because it came off earlier, the parachute was released too early, decreasing the amount of time the rocket was in the air. After adjustments such as taking out some marbles, readjusting our parachutes, and adding a little tape to our cone, our longest launch lasted for about 7 seconds.
After so many trials, I felt disappointed in myself that our rocket wasn't staying up for 10 seconds. I felt that we could've done it and it irked me that it wasn't working. After stopping for a few minutes, we decided to try one last time. The last launch gave us 9 seconds!!!!! This lab not only taught me how to make a rocket bottle rocket and what makes it fly so well, but it also taught me to never give up and to just keep on trying. You never know if your next trial can bring you one step closer to your goal. Even though we didn't reach the 10 second mark, it was pretty fun and was a good experience!
Our final product! :)
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