Water Rocket Report

Y10 PHY Tri 2 Investigation Report

Of group Feng Siwei, Zuo Tian, Liang Jiayi, Jin Chi, Class Y10-1

Introduction

Our group aimed to make a water rocket that could be launched successfully. Water rocket is environmental as it does not need any fuel, just by using water to make it fly. This report is going to present the method we use, the experiment procedure and the data analysis.

Method of making the water rocket

1. To collect the raw materials and necessary tools or equipments, including 2 plastic bottles with a volume of approximately 500 ml, a card board, several pieces of colored paper, a scotch tape and a scissors.
2. To make the main body of the water rocket. We use one of the bottles as the 'fuselage', and use the top of another bottle as 'head', connecting them by plastic tape.

[pic 1]

Figure 1: Method of making main body

1. To make 2 wings of water rocket. We cut the card board into 2 polygons like figure 2, and then use tape to connect them with the main body. The wings are symmetric about the midcourt line (the red line in figure 3).

[pic 2]

Figure 2: Shape of wings

[pic 3]

Figure 3: Method of making wings

1. To make some decoration on the rocket. We cut the colored paper into some patterns and stick them on the wings and main body.

[pic 4]

Figure 4: Method of making decoration

Procedure of launching the water rocket and measuring the distance

Equipments needed: an ejector, a measuring tape and an inflator

Specific method:

1. Inject a certain volume of water, which is about one third of that of the bottle, into the rocket.
2. Use the inflator to inject a certain volume of gas into the rocket.
3. Put the rocket with an angle of 45 degree with the ground.
4. Loosen the bottom of the rocket, and the rocket will soar up.
5. Measure the horizontal flying distance of the rocket. (The red line in figure 5)

[pic 5]

Figure 5: Procedure of launching the rocket

Data analysis

(PS: This section will be finished after completing the experiment.)

Individual work

1. The raw material collection was conducted by Liang Jiayi and Jin Chi.
2. The water rocket was assembled by Zuo Tian, the water rocket components were made by Feng Siwei.
3. All group members will take part in the launching process.
4. This report is written by Feng Siwei, who takes the responsibility of ensuring the authenticity of the statements.

Conclusion

Overall, our group achieves our initial goal, to successfully launch a water rocket that is made by ourselves. The experiment helps us to understand the theory of water rocket, that is, by increasing the pressure inside the rocket, and the water erupts down to push the rocket up. To reconsider the whole process experiment, it is realized that the quality of the raw materials should be improved, and it should take more time to make the rocket to enhance the water rocket quality.