SCIENCE FAIR PROJECT

Bottles RocketBy: Eileen Broome and Megan Bailey

Statement of the Problem

How does the carbonation affect the height of a bottle rocket?

Project Overview

Megan and I are going to launch bottle rockets

and see whether or not the one with carbonation will go higher than the one with water in it.

Research

We researched which rocket will go higher

The rocket with soda went higher

We launched both rockets each with three fins

Variables

Independent variable: Cola- millimeters

Dependent variable :Height- feet Constant variables- type of bottle,

type of fin, type of nose Control group: Water

Hypothesis

If we use cola then the rocket will go higher because the carbonation will give more pressure.

Materials

Duct tape,3 bottles (2 L), cola, water, rocket shooter, nose, notebook, camera, bike pump, and clinometer

Procedure

Gather materials Build rocket- Cover your rocket in duct tape, to make a nose

get a cone and a ball of rubber or modeling clay and drop it into the cone ,tape your nose on the top of the rocket

Make rocket launcher- get a pump and a tube and attach them together, get a small part from a water pipe and attach them together

Test hypothesis- by conducting experiment Collect data- collect average(see below), and height of all

the rocket launches Analyze data

Make graphs, charts, board, etc.

Photos

Data/Observations (Analyzes)

1 2 302468

10

2.68 2.5 2.43

4.73 5.56.43

Water Vs. Cola Series1 Series2

Timer

Tim

es

Quantitative Observation:                     Qualitative Observation:Building:                                                   Building:-We used one roll of duck tape                  - We used black Duck Tape-We used one long cardboard like tube     - We had a cardboard tube on each rocketfor both of the bottle rockets.                    - We stripped our bottle of its label-We had (2) 2L bottles                              - We had a wooden on the top of our noseLaunching:                                                 Launching:-We shot each bottle rocket off once but -The Cola went higher than waterused (3) timers.                                         - The Water went before ColaAveraging:-The average time for water is 2.53666666666667-The average time for cola is5.553333333333333

 

Conclusion

Our data does prove our hypothesis. The rocket with the carbonation definitely went higher than the rocket with water in it. I think the rocket went higher because there was carbonation and it egged on the air and it expanded the bottle so it had more will to release itself.

Possible Experimental Errors

There could have been problems in the nose. The duct tape could have weighed the rockets down. There could not have been the right amount of pressure. The mass in the nose couldn’t have been enough mass. The rockets could have been launched differently.

Applications and Recommendations

Suggestions to make the experiment better would to have pump not just a bicycle pump. It would make it a lot easier. I would also try to do it on another day. It was a little windy the day we did it so that could have affected out times. Something else we could have improved was the identity of each rocket to make it more like the other.

Something weird happened after we did our experiment. Well, we had extra time and decided to launch another bottle rocket with nothing on it but is had soda that had not been poured out yet. When we launched it, it went higher than the others. So that would be a good experiment was it the less mass that made it go higher or the still fresh soda?

Works Cited

Rocket | Science Olympiad." Home Page | Science Olympiad. Web. 13 May 2011. <http://soinc.org/bottle_rocket_b>.

 "Bottle Rocket - Science Olympiad Student Center Event Wiki." Web. 13 May 2011. <http://scioly.org/wiki/Bottle_Rocket>.

 "Bottle Rockets." 6th Science. Web. 13 May 2011. <http://www.tclauset.org/21_BtlRockets/BTL.html>.

 "Google Images." Google. Web. 13 May 2011. <http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.onlyitlinks.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/11/water-bottle-rockets.gif>.

 "Water Rocketry - About Bottle Rockets." Space Flight Systems Directorate / Glenn Research Center. Web. 13 May 2011. <http://exploration.grc.nasa.gov/education/rocket/BottleRocket/about.htm>.