Group: Jennie, Katy, and Rachel-8th Hour

Experimental Design Diagram for Rocket Variable 2—The Number of Wings

A. How does the number of wings affect the distance traveled by the rocket?
B. If there are a lot of wings it will slow the rocket down because of the weight. If there are very few
wings (1 or 2), we predict the rocket won't travel very far either because the rocket won't be stable. We
predict the number 3 or 4 wings will produce maximum results for distance traveled.
C.
Distance Traveled by the Rocket Depends on the Number of Wings
Number of Wings Trial 1 (distance traveled in meters)
4 30
3 51
2 72
1 54
Source: Jennie, Katy, and Rachel, Rocket Experiment May 2010
D. Five controlled variables of this experiment include the following: 75 psi (pounds of air pressure per
square inch) inside the rocket; 100 milliliters of water in the top bottle of the rocket and 1,000
milliliters of water in the bottom bottle of the rocket; the 20 ounce bottle being on the top and the 2 liter
bottle on the bottom (when you make the rocket, that is); right triangle wings that are 15 centimeters
long and 11 centimeters wide; and having the label off both pop bottles.
E. The materials needed for this experiment are the following: a 20 ounce pop bottle, duct tape, a 2 liter
pop bottle, cardboard, a ruler or meter stick (to measure both the distance the rocket travels and the
length and width of the triangle), a measuring cup to measure out the amount of water in each bottle,
cardboard to make the triangles out of, a scissors, a protractor to measure the angle of the triangles, and
something (I'm not sure what you would call it) to pump the air pressure into the rocket.
F. Get the materials that you need for the experiment—listed above. Measure out 1,000 milliliters of
water and pour it into the 2 liter. Then cut out the wings of the rocket according to the specifications
listed above in the controlled variables section, making sure to make accurate measurements with the
protractor and ruler. Tape the wings at even intervals on the 2 liter, using A LOT of tape to make sure
they are secure and rigid and won't fall off. Then, put the cap on the 2 liter and tape the empty 20 oz
bottle to the 2 liter, again using a lot of tape to make sure they are securely anchored together. Next,
measure out 100 milliliters of water to put into the 20 oz bottle and pour it in. Then pump the 75 psi
into the rocket, launch it off, and record the results of your test in the data table.
I.
J. 1. Did our data support our hypothesis? As shown by our graph and our table, our data did not
exactly support our hypothesis. This was probably due to several outside factors as well, which I will
talk about below in the “changes we would make to our experiment if we did it again.”
2. What changes would we make to this experiment if we did it again? Since we only have a certain
number of days to test 3 variables and we were, as it was said, not being very assertive, we only
managed to get in 4 rocket launches with both today and yesterday, so we only had 4 trials instead of 3
trials for each number of wings. So, if we were to do this experiment again we would definitely do
more trials for each number of wings, so we could get a much more definite estimate of what the
affects of our variable are on the rocket. Another factor we would change (if we could!) would be the
weather. For example, when we did our trials today it was very windy and the wind was blowing in the
direction we were launching, so that probably affected how far our rockets went, no matter what
number of wings they had.