Progress Day #1

So today, I have started to finish my ISU. I thought of conducting an experiment. Since I am starting today, I already had in mind some ideas I could use for my experiment that also involves creativity. I went online and looked at topics such as doing a bottle rocket, making a roller coaster similar in class that we did on the principle of energy conservation, or measuring your reaction time. Gravity is pulling down on the yardstick at a constant rate. The longer it falls, the faster it goes. By measuring how far the yardstick falls, we can calculate the speed at which it is moving and the time it took you to catch it.

I have chosen the bottle rocket experiment because it looks like an interesting procedure to set up and test it on large surfaces. In order to do this, I've been thinking and getting ideas from other people to help me conduct this experiment properly that makes sense. After a while, I have thought of creating a water rocket and the materials that I need to make that are:

• A two-litre fizzy (OR WATER) drinks bottle: this will form the main body of the rocket.
  
• A tennis ball, or rubber ball weighing about 60 g. This will form the main part of the nose.
  
• Some corrugated cardboard, or better still, corrugated plastic. This will be used to make the fins.
  
• ‘Duct’ tape or equivalent strong, sticky tape.
  
• Scissors or a knife.
  

Time: Between 30 and 40 minutes

- Pump

- Launch

- Possibly a ramp

- Rubber bung

- Modelling clay

For the nose cone, which is one of the most important part of the experiment it should have:

o Tag board builds a firm secure nose coneo The nose cone should have a higher mass to surface area ratio

o Modelling clay can be used to allow students to add mass to the nose cone.

o The nose cone must go through the air easier than the body of the rocket.

o If students choose to add a parachute, the nose cone needs to be able to separate from the rocket body 

o After applying the nose cone and fins, a string should be tied around the middle of the rocket to see if the rocket hangs evenly. If it doesn’t, then it has too much weight on one end or the other and should be balanced. You can also fly it overhead on the string to see if it is balanced in flight. 

This experiment will describe Newton's third law. As the bottle pushes some of its water downward, the water responds by pushing upward on the bottle, propelling the water to go upward. All a rocket needs is fuel and energy. Pushing the fuel backwards is what propels the rocket forward action and reaction. 

This is my theory of the experiment so far. I still have to gather all the materials and get to work.