FOLIO PHYSICS (ROCKET)

NAME:LOOI CHING KHANG

CLASS:4S1

CONTENT
INDRODUCTION
OPERATION
PREDICTING PEAK HEIGHT
MULTI-BOTTLE ROCKETS AND MULTI-STAGE ROCKETS
SOURCES OF GAS
NOZZLES
FINS
LANDING SYSTEMS
LAUNCH TUBES
SAFETY
PHYSICS CONCEPTS
WATER ROCKET COMPETITIONS
WATER ROCKET COMPETITIONS
WORLD RECORD
STEPS

INTRODUCTION
Water rocket is a type of model rocket using water as its reaction mass. The
pressure vessel the engine of the rocket is usually a used plastic soft drink
bottle. The water is forced out by a pressurized gas, typically compressed air. It
is an example of Newton's third law of motion.
The term aquajet has been used in parts of Europe in place of
the more common water rocket and in same places they also referred to as
bottle rockets (which can be confusing as this term
refers to a firework in other places).

OPERATION
The bottle is partly filled with water and sealed. The bottle is then pressurized
with a gas, usually air compressed from a bicycle pump, air compressor, or
cylinder up to 125 psi, but sometimes CO2 or nitrogen from a cylinder.
Water and gas are used in combination, with the gas providing a means to store
potential energy, as it is compressible, and the water increasing the mass
fraction and providing greater force when ejected from the rocket's nozzle.
Sometimes additives are combined with the water to enhance performance in
different ways. For example: salt can be added to increase the density of the
reaction mass resulting in a higher specific impulse. Soap is also sometimes
used to create a dense foam in the rocket which lowers the density of the
expelled reaction mass but increases the duration of thrust. It is speculated that
foam acts as a compressible liquid and enhances the thrust when used with De
Laval nozzles.
The seal on the nozzle of the rocket is then released and rapid expulsion of
water occurs at high speeds until the propellant has been used up and the air
pressure inside the rocket drops to atmospheric pressure. There is a net force
created on the rocket in accordance with Newton's third law. The expulsion of
the water thus can cause the rocket to leap a considerable distance into the air.
In addition to aerodynamic considerations, altitude and flight duration are
dependent upon the volume of water, the initial pressure, the rocket nozzle's
size, and the unloaded weight of the rocket. The relationship between these
factors is complex and several simulators have been written to explore these and
other factors.
Often the pressure vessel is built from one or more used plastic soft drink
bottles, but polycarbonate fluorescent tube covers, plastic pipes, and other lightweight pressure-resistant cylindrical vessels have also been used.
Typically launch pressures vary from 75 to 150 psi (500 to 1000 kPa). The
higher the pressure, the larger the stored energy.

PREDICTING PEAK HEIGHT

If aerodynamic drag and transient changes in pressure are neglected, a closedform approximation for the peak height of a rocket fired vertically can be
expressed as follows:

( = peak height reached,

= Initial mass of water only,
= Rocket mass
with water, = Initial gauge pressure inside rocket, = density of water, =
acceleration due to gravity) Assumptions for the above equation: (1) water is
incompressible, (2) flow through the nozzle is uniform, (3) velocities are
rectilinear, (4) density of water is much greater than density of air, (5) no
viscosity effects, (6) steady flow, (7) velocity of the free surface of water is very
small compared to the velocity of the nozzle, (8) air pressure remains constant
until water runs out, (9) nozzle velocity remains constant until water runs out,
and (10) there are no viscous-friction effects from the nozzle (see Moody chart).
An independent variable that influences peak height is weight/mass. Depending
on the thrust of the rocket propulsion system, a rocket requires a minimum mass
to overcome the deleterious effects of drag. For example, the greater the
thrust/the less the original weight of the rocket, the more weight or mass must
be added to the rocket to insure maximum apogee. The mass is generally
referred to as ballast. This principle is demonstrated by having a student throw a
straw with and without a piece of clay attached to the 'nose' of the straw. The
straw with the greater mass will travel further, provided that there is sufficient
thrust to overcome the ballast or extra mass.

MULTI-BOTTLE ROCKETS AND MULTI-STAGE ROCKETS

Multi-bottle rockets are created by joining two or more bottles in any of several
different ways; bottles can be connected via their nozzles, by cutting them apart
and sliding the sections over each other, or by connecting them opening to
bottom, making a chain to increase volume. Increased volume leads to increased
weight, but this should be offset by a commensurate increase in the duration of
the thrust of the rocket. Multi-bottle rockets can be unreliable, as any failure in
sealing the rocket can cause the different sections to separate. To make sure the
launch goes well, pressure tests are performed beforehand, as safety is a
concern. These are very good to make the rocket go high, however they are not
very accurate and may veer off course. So stand 20 feet away from launch.
Multi-stage rockets are much more complicated. They involve two or more
rockets stacked on top of each other, designed to launch while in the air, much
like the multi-stage rockets that are used to send payloads into space. Methods
to time the launches in correct order and at the right time vary, but the crushingsleeve method is quite popular.

SOURCES OF GAS
Several methods for pressurizing a rocket are used including:

A standard bicycle/car tire pump, capable of reaching at least 75 psi

(520 kPa).

Water pressure forcing all the air in an empty water hose into the rocket.
Pressure is the same as the water main.

An air compressor, like those used in workshops to

power pneumatic equipment and tools. Modifying a high pressure (greater
than 15 bar / 1500 kPa / 200 psi) compressor to work as a water rocket
power source can be dangerous, as can using high-pressure gases from
cylinders.

Compressed gases in bottles, like carbon dioxide (CO2), air, and nitrogen
gas (N2). Examples include CO2 in paintball cylinders and air in industrial
and SCUBA cylinders. Care must be taken with bottled gases: as the
compressed gas expands, it cools (see gas laws) and rocket components cool
as well. Some materials, such as PVC and ABS, can become brittle and
weak when severely cooled. Long air hoses are used to maintain a safe
distance, and pressure gauges (known as manometers) and safety valves are
typically utilized on launcher installations to avoid over-pressurizing rockets
and having them explode before they can be launched. Highly pressurized
gases such as those in diving cylinders or vessels from industrial gas
suppliers should only be used by trained operators, and the gas should be
delivered to the rocket via a regulator device (e.g. a SCUBA first-stage). All
compressed gas containers are subject to local, state and national laws in
most countries and must be safety tested periodically by a certified test
centre.

Ignition of a mixture of explosive gases above the water in the bottle; the
explosion creates the pressure to launch the rocket into the air.

NOZZLES
Water rocket nozzles differ from conventional combustion rocket nozzles in that
they do not have a divergent section such as in a De Laval nozzle. Because
water is essentially incompressible the divergent section does not contribute to
efficiency and actually can make performance worse.
There are two main classes of water rocket nozzles:

Open also sometimes referred to as "standard" or "full-bore" having an

inside diameter of ~22mm which is the standard soda bottle neck opening.

Restricted which is anything smaller than the "standard". A popular

restricted nozzle has an inside diameter of 9mm and is known as a "Gardena
nozzle" named after a common garden hose quick connector used to make
them.

The size of the nozzle affects the thrust produced by the rocket. Larger diameter
nozzles provide faster acceleration with a shorter thrust phase, while smaller
nozzles provide lower acceleration with a longer thrust phase.
It can be shown that the equation for the instantaneous thrust of a nozzle is
simply
where

is the thrust,

is the pressure and

is area of the nozzle.

FINS
Fins are extremely important on a water rocket. They ensure stability, and it is
very likely that your water rocket flies higher with fins than without. Fins
increase drag, but the stability achieved makes a much larger difference to the
height your rocket will fly. A second thing that is very important is where you
position the fins. It is best if they are placed near the back of the bottle where
the center of mass is found. A waterproof, stable, light material to make the fins
would be "Coroplast". This is a cardboard like material that is almost
indestructible. The only negative it has is that it is harder to glue, but with the
right glue it is possible.
As the propellant level in the rocket goes down, it can be shown that the centre
of mass initially moves downwards before finally moving upwards again as the
propellant is depleted. This initial movement reduces stability and can cause
water rockets to start tumbling end over end, greatly decreasing the maximum
speed and thus the length of glide (time that the rocket is flying under its own
momentum). To lower the centre of pressure and add stability, fins can be added
which bring the centre of drag further back, well behind the centre of mass at all
times, ensuring stability.
In the case of custom-made rockets, where the rocket nozzle is not perfectly
positioned, the bent nozzle can cause the rocket to veer off the vertical axis. The
rocket can be made to spin by angling the fins, which reduces off course
veering.
Another simple and effective stabilizer is a straight cylindrical section from
another plastic bottle. This section is placed behind the rocket nozzle with some
wooden dowels or plastic tubing. The water exiting the nozzle will still be able
to pass through the section, but the rocket will be stabilized.
The fins on a rocket are important for stability during flight. They should be
placed near the rear of the rocket.
Aerodynamic drag acts on the fins as well as on the rocket body. Fins add to the
frontal surface area on which the drag force acts (and therefore should be
designed not to add too much drag). The drag forces on all frontal surfaces of
the rocket can be resolved into one force acting at the center of pressure Center

of pressure (fluid mechanics). This acts to oppose the forward motion, but if the
rocket nose is not pointed in the direction of its motion at a given time (perhaps
due to wobbling or instability), then there will be a torque, due to the resolved
drag force, acting around the center of gravity. This torque will stabilize the
rocket by returning its nose to the direction of travel.
Since the torque is the cross-product of the drag force magnitude and the
moment arm, torque can be maximized without increasing drag force by
increasing the moment arm. The larger the distance between the center of
gravity and the center of pressure, the greater the moment arm on the restoring
torque. Therefore, it is desirable to have the center of pressure, and therefore the
fins, as far back as possible on the rocket body.
The lift force acts to push the back end of the rocket so that the nose will face
the flight direction, and the drag force does the same, even though it is pointing
orthogonally to the lift force.

LANDING SYSTEMS
Stabilizing fins cause the rocket to fly nose-first which will give significantly
higher speed, but they will also cause it to fall with a significantly higher
velocity than it would if it tumbled to the ground, and this may damage the
rocket or whoever or whatever it strikes upon landing.
Some water rockets have parachute or other recovery system to help prevent
problems. However these systems can suffer from malfunctions. This is often
taken into account when designing rockets. Rubber bumpers, Crumple zones,
and safe launch practices can be utilized to minimize damage or injury caused
by a falling rocket.
Another possible recovery system involves simply using the rocket's fins to
slow its descent and is sometimes called backward sliding. By increasing fin
size, more drag is generated. If the centre of mass is placed forward of the fins,
the rocket will nose dive. In the case of super-roc or back-gliding rockets, the
rocket is designed such that the relationship between centre of gravity and the
centre of pressure of the empty rocket causes the fin-induced tendency of the
rocket to tip nose down to be counteracted by the air resistance of the long body
which would cause it to fall tail down, and resulting in the rocket falling
sideways, slowly.

LAUNCH TUBES
Some water rocket launchers use launch tubes. A launch tube fits inside the
nozzle of the rocket and extends upward toward the nose. The launch tube is
anchored to the ground. As the rocket begins accelerating upward, the launch
tube blocks the nozzle, and very little water is ejected until the rocket leaves the
launch tube. This allows almost perfectly efficient conversion of the potential
energy in the compressed air to kinetic energy and gravitational potential energy
of the rocket and water. The high efficiency during the initial phase of the
launch is important, because rocket engines are least efficient at low speeds. A
launch tube therefore significantly increases the speed and height attained by
the rocket. Launch tubes are most effective when used with long rockets, which
can accommodate long launch tubes.

SAFETY
Water rockets employ considerable amounts of energy and can be dangerous if
handled improperly or in cases of faulty construction or material failure. Certain
safety procedures are observed by experienced water rocket enthusiasts:

When a rocket is built, it is pressure tested. This is done by filling the

rocket completely with water, and then pressurizing it to at least 50% greater
than anticipated pressures. If the bottle ruptures, the amount of compressed
air inside it (and thus the potential energy) will be very small, and the bottle
will not explode.

Using metal parts on the pressurized portion of the rocket is strongly

discouraged because in the event of a rupture, they can become harmful
projectiles. Metal parts can also short out power lines.

While pressurizing and launching the rocket, bystanders are kept at a safe
distance. Typically, mechanisms for releasing the rocket at a distance (with a
piece of string, for example) are used. This ensures that if the rocket veers
off in an unexpected direction, it is less likely to hit the operator or
bystanders.

Water rockets should only be launched in large open areas, away from
structures or other people, in order to prevent damage to property and
people.

As water rockets are capable of breaking bones upon impact, they

should never be fired at people, property, or animals.

Safety goggles or a face shield are typically used.

A typical two-litre soda bottle can generally reach the pressure of 100 psi
(690 kPa) safely, but preparations must be made for the eventuality that the
bottle unexpectedly ruptures.

Glue used to put together parts of water rockets must be suitable to use on
plastics, or else the glue will chemically "eat" away the bottle, which may
then fail catastrophically and can harm bystanders when the rocket is
launched.

PHYSICS CONCEPTS
Physics Concepts: Newtons 1st Law - Every object in a state of uniform
motion tends to remain in that state of motion unless an
external force is applied to it.

This we recognize as Galileos concept of inertia, and

this is often termed simply the "Law of Inertia."

Newtons 2nd Law If an unbalanced (net) force acts on

an object, that object will accelerate (or decelerate) in
the direction of the force.

Newtons 3rd Law For every action force, there is an

equal and opposite reaction force.

A body at rest is considered to have zero speed (a constant speed).

So any force that causes a body to move is an unbalanced force.
Also, any force, such as friction, or gravity, that causes a body to
low down or speed up, is an unbalanced force. This law can be
shown by the following formula.

F=ma

F is the unbalanced force (vector)

m is the objects mass (scalar)

 a is the acceleration that the force causes (vector)

Force and acceleration are both vector quantities. In this law

the direction of the force vector is the same as the direction of
the acceleration vector.

Vector and Scalar Quantities: An understanding of vectors is

essential for understanding of physics and Newtons Second Law.
A vector is a quantity that has two aspects. It has a size, or
magnitude, and a direction. In contrast, there are quantities called
scalars that have only size.

If a quantity has only a size, it is called a scalar. Mass, distance,

speed, time and temperature are examples of scalars.

If a quantity has a size and a direction, it is a vector quantity.

Force, acceleration, velocity, displacement, gravitational field,
torque, and electric and magnetic fields are all vectors.

The following excerpt is borrowed from the NASA website:

http://exploration.grc.nasa.gov/education/rocket/newton1r.html
It explains how Newtons three laws apply in rocket flight.
Sir Isaac Newton first presented his three laws of motion in the "Principia
Mathematica Philosophiae Naturalis" in 1686. His first law states that every
object remains at rest or in uniform motion in a straight line unless compelled to

change its state by the action of an external force. This is normally taken as the
definition of inertia. The key point here is that if there is no net force acting on
an object (if all the external forces cancel each other out) then the object
maintains a constant velocity. If that velocity is zero, then the object remains at
rest. If the velocity is not zero, then the object maintains that velocity and
travels in a straight line. If a net external force is applied, the velocity changes
because of the force. The liftoff of a rocket from the launch pad is a good
example of this principle. Just prior to engine ignition, the velocity of the rocket
is zero and the rocket is at rest. If the rocket is sitting on its fins, the weight of
the rocket is balanced by the re-action of the earth to the weight as described by
Newton's third law of motion. There is no net force on the object, and the rocket
would remain at rest indefinitely. When the engine is ignited, the thrust of the
engine creates an additional force opposed to the weight. As long as the thrust is
less than the weight, the combination of the thrust and the re-action force
through the fins balance the weight and there is no net external force. The rocket
stays on the pad. When the thrust is equal to the weight, there is no longer any
re-action force through the fins, but the net force on the rocket is still zero.
When the thrust is greater than the weight, there is a net external force equal to
the thrust minus the weight, and the rocket begins to rise. The velocity of the
rocket increases from zero to some positive value under the acceleration
produced by the net external force. As the rocket velocity increases, it
encounters air resistance, or aerodynamic drag, which opposes the motion. Drag
increases as the square of the velocity. The thrust of the rocket must be greater
than the weight plus the drag for the rocket to continue accelerating. If the thrust
becomes equal to the weight plus the drag, the rocket continues to climb at a
fixed velocity, but it does not accelerate. This flight condition is often
encountered by model rockets because of the low thrust and high drag of their
design. Full scale rockets usually have sufficient excess thrust to continue
accelerating. Drag eventually begins to decrease because drag depends on the
air density and density decreases with increasing altitude.
Newtons 3rd law applies to bottle rockets in the same manner except that the
fuel is not burned. A rocket gets its lift from the built up air pressure and the
water pushing out of its tail. The force of these fluids is the action force. They
force the rocket up in the opposite direction creating the reaction force.
WATER ROCKET COMPETITIONS

The Oscar Swigelhoffer Trophy is an Aquajet (Water Rocket) competition held

at the Annual International Rocket Week in Largs, Scotland and organized by
STAAR Research through John Bonsor. The competition goes back to the mid1980s, organized by the Paisley Rocketeers who have been active in amateur
rocketry since the 1930s. The trophy is named after the late founder of
ASTRA, Oscar Swiglehoffer, who was also a personal friend and student
of Hermann Oberth, one of the founding fathers of rocketry.
The competition involves team distance flying of water rockets under an agreed
pressure and angle of flight. Each team consists of six rockets, which are flown
in two flights. The greater distance for each rocket over the two flights is
recorded, and the final team distances are collated, with the winning team
having the greatest distance. The winner in 2007 was ASTRA. The competition
has been regularly dominated over the last 20 years by the Paisley Rocketeers.
The United Kingdom's largest water rocket competition is currently the National
Physical Laboratory's annual Water Rocket Challenge. The competition was
first opened to the public in 2001 and is limited to around 60 teams. It has
schools and open categories, and is attended by a variety of "works" and private
teams, some travelling from abroad. The rules and goals of the competition vary
from year to year.
The Water Rocket Achievement World Record Association is a worldwide
association which administrates competitions for altitude records involving
single stage and multiple stage water rockets, a flight duration competition, and
speed or distance competitions for water rocketpowered cars.
The oldest and most popular water rocket competition in Germany is the
Freestyle-Physics Water Rocket Competition. The competition is one part of a
larger part of a student physics competition, where students are tasked to
construct various machines and enter them in competitive contests.
Science Olympiad also has a Water Rocket event.
In Pakistan Water Rocket Competition is held every year in World Space Week
by Suparco Institute Of Technical Training (SITT). In which different schools
from all over the Pakistan take part.

WORLD RECORD
The Guinness World Record of launching most water rockets simultaneously is
in hands of Gotta Launch,[13] when on 19 June 2009, they launched 213 of them
at the same time, together with students of the Delft University of Technology.
The current record for greatest altitude achieved by a water and air propelled
rocket[14] is 2044 feet (623 metres), held by U.S. Water Rockets[15] on 14 June
2007. This altitude was calculated by averaging two flights. The first flight
achieved 2068 feet (630 meters) and the second 2020 feet (615.7 meters). The
rocket also carried a video camera as payload on both flights as part of the
verification required by the competition rules.

STEPS
STEP 1: Prepare two 1500 ml PET bottles.

STEP 2: Cut one of the bottles into three parts. Please keep the bottles top and
middle section.

STEP 3: Stick the bottles top into the other PET bottles bottom part.

STEP 4: Stick the first bottles middle section into the second bottles top
part. (Please use the insulating tape.)

STEP 5 : Cut four acrylic boards as the four empennages of the rocket.

STEP 6 : Pour about 200 ml Water into the bottle.

STEP 7 : Cap the rocket into the inflater ready to launch.

STEP 8: Put the rocket into the launch pad.

STEP 9 : Pump the air into the bottle.

STEP 10 : Make sure the atmospheric pressure in the bottle is about 70~75
percent.

STEP 11: Launch!

FINISH.