Rocket Lab Report

Nate Voth
AMES
B2
Written for
Mr Hendrickss Physics Honors Class

Abstract
The overall goal to obtain through this lab was to accurately predict the maximum
altitude of several different model rockets. This required a series of calculations and
experiments to be performed. The first step was measuring the force exerted by a model
rocket engine to calculate its impulse. Then the aerodynamics of a model rocket was
studied to learn how air resistance would affect the rockets. Then after the predicted
maximum height was calculated several rockets with varying engines were launched and
their actual maximum heights were measured.
Here is the final data collected from the rocket launches. Data from a couple different
launches were not used in this table because they had significantly crooked flight paths,
which resulted in low maximum altitudes.
Rocket

Predicted

Actual

White

28m

21m

Red/yellow

63m

63m

Red/silver

32m

27m

Introduction
This lab was done as a way to apply several different concepts in physics to
predict how high model rockets would go based of what engines they we using. The lab is
based around the ideas of kinematics (the study of bodies in motion) and dynamics (how
forces affect motion). More specifically the concepts of impulse, momentum, drag force,
and the coefficient of drag were used to perform the calculations necessary to predict the
height of the rockets. One important equation that was needed for the lab was the impulse
momentum theorem (impulse = change in momentum). The impulse momentum theorem
can be proven by the following derivation.

Also to follow along with the report it is important to know how rocket engines are
classified. In this lab an A8, B6, and C6 engine were used. The letter indicates the
impulse of the rocket. An A engine has an impulse of 2.5, a B has an impulse of 5, and a
C has an impulse of 10. The number after the letter indicates the average thrust the engine
exerts in Newtons. For calculating the height of the rockets the problem solving method
of numerical iteration was used to make accurate approximations. The reason numerical
iteration must be used is because the thrust of the rocket, its velocity, and the force of
drag are constantly changing as the rocket ascends and thus one equation could not be
used to calculate its maximum altitude. To do the calculations a spread-sheet in excel was
used to calculate the height throughout a series of time intervals based of the average
thrust of that time interval, the force of drag acting on the rocket, and the force of gravity
on the rocket.
Part 1: Engine Thrust Analysis

The purpose of this section of the lab was to measure the force exerted by a rocket
engine and calculate its impulse to determine what kind of rocket it was. Having the
thrust data of the rocket will be important for later on when the height of the rockets are
calculated. In order to measure the force of the rocket the engine was placed on a sled
that would push on a digital force gage. The data from the force gage was recorded to a
calculator using a data-mate. An electric igniter was used to fire the engine.
Setup:

To record the data to the to data-mate the force gage was first zeroed out when no
force was applied. It was also noted that the data from the force gage would be negative,
because it is designed to measure pulling force so pushing on it would result in negative
force being applied. Next the data-mate was set up to record a sample once every 0.1
seconds for three seconds which would result in a total of 30 samples. A 3 second time
frame was chosen to give the rocket enough time to fully burn. Then a trigger threshold
of -0.5N was set so when the gage read a force that was below -0.5N the data-mate would
begin recording. Note: When the gage reads a force lower than that it means that the
rocket is pushing with a force greater than 0.5N. After the rocket was fired this was the
data was recorded.

Since this graph is a plot of Force as a function of time that means that area under
the curve is Ft or impulse. To calculate the area the t or the time between when the
rocket started burning and the time it stopped. After examining the data it appears that the
start time was t = 0.3seconds and the end time was t = 1.4seconds. That means the t is
1.4 0.3 = 1.1seconds.
Now the area can be calculated by adding together a series of rectangles with a
base 0.1 seconds and a height of the force corresponding to each sample in the 1.1second
timeframe. Since the timeframe is 1.1second time frame 12 rectangles will be added
together. To find the height of each rectangle the trace feature on the calculator is used to
find the y or force value to each x or time value.
Calculation: Ft = (0.33*0.1) + (0.76*0.1) + (5.38*0.1) + (10.43*0.1) + (4.83*0.1) +
(4.44*0.1) + (4.26*0.1) + (4.26*0.1) + (4.19*0.1) + (4.16*0.1) + (3.47*0.1) + (0.30*0.1)
= 3.74.
Since 3.74 is closest to an impulse of 5 it is now known that it was a B type
engine. To determine what kind of B engine it was. To do this the average thrust was

calculated by adding the forces from each of the 12 samples then dividing by 12. This
results in an average thrust of 3.9. From these calculations it would seem that it was a B4
engine but during the experiment the rocket wasnt angled straight on the sled, which
resulted in a lower force reading. In actuality the engine used was a B6 engine.
Part 2: Drag Force
The next stage in this lab was to find the drag coefficient of different rockets by
first calculating the drag force of one of the rockets. To do this, the smaller red and
yellow rocket was placed in a wind tunnel and hung from a string. A protractor was
placed behind the rocket in order to measure the angle of the string once the wind tunnel
was turned on.
Setup:

Note how the intake of the wind tunnel has this honeycomb structure. This is there
to make sure the wind in the tunnel was an even or laminar flow and not an uneven or
turbulent flow.
After turning the wind tunnel on the rocket was pushed back 30. Since the wind speed of
the tunnel was 34m/s and the rocket had a mass of 61 grams an equation can be derived
to calculate the force of drag.

Now using the force of drag the equation Fd = Kdv^2 the drag coefficient can be
calculated.

Since the larger white rocket is to big to fit in the wind tunnel its coefficient of
drag can be estimated by making an educated guess. Since the larger rocket has a bigger
diameter than the smaller one its drag coefficient must be larger than 0.0003. Also a PingPong was calculated to have a drag coefficient of 0.0005. The larger white rocket has the
same diameter as the Ping-Pong ball but is also pointier and more aerodynamic so that
means the white rocket has a drag coefficient below 0.0005. So a good estimate for the
white rocket would be about 0.0004 because it is between 0.0003 and 0.0005.
Part 3: Numerical model
This part consisted of using a spreadsheet to determine the maximum height of a
given rocket based off its weight, drag coefficient, and type of engine. In order to
determine the height of the rocket at any given time the spread has to do a few different
things. The first thing done in the spreadsheet was to enter the weight of a given rocket
with a specific engine and in another cell the drag coefficient was entered. These two
things will be used for making different calculations. Once that was entered the thrust
data of a chosen engine was entered, which was given by the manufacturer. The data
given by the manufacturer was recorded every tenth of a second.
Once all those things are entered excel does the rest of the calculations. The first
column of the spreadsheet finds the average thrust in a certain time interval by adding the
thrust from one point in time to the thrust of the next point in time and dividing by two
((Thr1 + Thr2) / 2). The next column calculates the force of drag by multiplying the drag
coefficient by the final velocity of the previous row squared (Fd = Kd*v^2). After that the
average net force is calculated by subtracting the force of gravity minus the force of drag
(Thravg - mg - Fd). Next the average net impulse is calculated by using the formula
Impulse = Ft, f being the average net force and t being the interval of 0.1 seconds. The
next column is the initial velocity, which is set to be equal to the final velocity of the
previous row. The next column calculates the final velocity by using the equation Vf =
(Vi + Fnett) / m, Vf stands for final velocity, Vi is initial velocity, Fnett is the net
impulse, and m is mass. After that the average velocity is calculated (Vi + Vf) / 2. Then
finally the height of that specific time intercal is calculated by using D=RT, (Hi +
Vavg*t), Hi is the height of the previous row, Vavg is the average velocity and t is the

0.1 time interval. Here is an example of the spreadsheet calculations using a rocket with a
mass of 0.071 kg with a 0.015kg A8 engine and a drag coefficient of 0.0004. To find the
maximum height of the rocket just look at what time on the spreadsheet the height of the
rocket the highest (Example in the appendix).
Using this spreadsheet makes it very easy to calculate the height of any rocket
with any engine as long as the mass and drag coefficient is known. Here are some
different examples of height calculations using the spreadsheet.
71 gram white rocket
drag coefficient: 0.0004
height with A8 28m
height with B6 75m
height with C6 195m
78 gram red/black rocket
drag coefficient: 0.0004
A8 24m
B6 67m
C6 184m
39 gram red/yellow rocket
drag coefficient: 0.0003
A8 63m
B6 132m
C6 281m
23 gram rocket
drag coefficient: 0.0003 (I guessed because I didnt know the actual coefficient.)
1/2A3 33m
Another interesting thing that can be done with the spreadsheet is calculate the
height of the rocket if the was no air resistance. To do this simply set the drag coefficient
to zero. When this is done to the 71 gram rocket with a C6 engine it results in a maximum
height of about 404 meters, which is over twice as much as with air resistance even
thought the drag coefficient was only 0.0004. Even though this spreadsheet is a
surprisingly accurate way to calculate height there are a few problems with it. The first is
that as the rocket burns the overall weight is getting lighter, which the spreadsheet
doesnt account for. The second thing is it finds the height of each time interval by
averaging the change in velocity. Another thing is after the rocket reaches maximum

height and falls the spreadsheet no longer is accurate because it doesnt account for the
rocket accelerating downwards from gravity.
Part 4: Flight Results
With all the calculations and predictions done the next step of the lab is to launch the
rockets and measure their heights to compare to the calculations. Measuring the height of
the rocket only requires simple trigonometry. The only tool thats needed is a protractor
with a string that has a small weight at the end. This is used to measure the angle of the
rocket from a certain distance. Measuring the angle is done by pointing the straight end of
the protractor at the rocket and letting the string remain vertical. Another person then
measures the angle by looking at how many degrees from 90 the string hangs.
Setup:

However, only measuring the angle from one point may not get accurate results,
because the rocket will most likely take a curved flight path and not straight up. If the
rocket were to veer towards the person measuring they would measure a steeper angle,
which would result in an inaccurate height calculation. To get a more accurate
measurement 3 groups of students are setup in three different locations, all 50 meters
from the where the rocket is launched. The angles that each group measures are averaged
together to then calculate the height. Once the average angle is found the equation 50tan
(50 is for the distance of 50 meters). Then 1.5 meters is added to the height to account for
the height of the person measuring the angle.
Example:

After multiple rockets with varying engines were launched this was the data
recorded for each launch.
Rocket

Engine

average

White

23

20

22

21.7

Red/yellow

50

55

48

51

Red/silver

30

25

25

26.7

Conclusion
The table below compares the heights predicted from the spread-sheet to the heights
measure from the actual launch.
Rocket
White
Red/yellow
Red/silver

Predicted
28m
63m
32m

Actual
21m
63m
27m

Some of the actual heights were significantly lower, because they flew at a
significantly curved angle as a result of a few fins being damaged after the rockets
parachutes failed to deploy, however those results were not included in the data. And
another reason the data for some of the rockets was so off could be because the drag
coefficient was estimated to be 0.0004 even though it could have actually been a little bit
lower. If the rockets were to be launched again something that would yield better results
would be to use undamaged rockets and to use a wind tunnel big enough to fit the bigger
rockets so their drag coefficient could be more accurately calculated.
Reflection
I think the most useful thing I learned from this lab was the process of numerical
iteration. It is something I didnt know before and I think it will prove to be useful to me
in the future especially because I want to pursue a career in science or engineering. This

lab was also a great opportunity to combine and strengthen the physics concepts I had
already learned throughout the year.