Rocket Experimental Design-water

Hope & Mackenzie

A. Will changing the amount of water on the top affect how far the rocket launches?
B. If we increase the amount of water in the top of the rocket then the rocket will go farther because the
water weight pushes it further.
C.
How Far the Rocket Launches depends on Amount of Water in the Top
Amount of Water How Far the rocket launches (m) Average Distance
(ml)
Trial 1 Trial 2 Trial 3 (m)
100mL 42 45 27 38
300 mL 45 43 47 45
50 mL 46 45 43 44.67
Source: Mackenzie Heyboer&Hope Yonker, May 2010
D. We'll shoot the rockets from 45 degrees, use the same duct tape, we'll leave the top cap on, same
amount of water in the bottom, and same fin size
E. big pop bottle, smaller pop bottle, duct tape, water, cardboard, scissors to cut fins
F.
-Get all the materials listed
-Cut out 3 fins for the rocket (6x4)
-duct tape the bottom of the smaller bottle to the bottom of the big bottle, make sure it's on straight
-duct tape the fins onto the bottom bottle (bigger one) make sure thy are the same distance apart
-Put water in both the top and the bottom. (650mL in the bottom and the amount in the top that you're
experimenting with)
-Put the covers on the bottles
-The rocket is ready to be shot off-45 degree angle (take bottom cap off, put it on the launcher, set up
the launcher & pull the string)
G. Ok
H. Ok
I. Graph...

J. Our data does support our hypothesis. We thought that if we added more water in the top, then the
rocket will go farther. Our data and graph both show that this is true. If we did do this experiment
again, we would want to measure our water and amounts more carefully. It's possible that water might
have leaked out in between launches or we didn't measure it very accurately.