Background research:
When an object is in the air and has no forces acting on it other than gravity it becomes a projectile. (Henderson, 1996) Gravity causes the projectile to accelerate toward the ground in a uniform arc like a rainbow does. this shape is known by scientists and mathematicians as a parabola, and objects that fly in the shape of a parabola are said to be in parabolic motion.
A projectiles motion can be broken up into two separate pieces, horizontal and vertical motion. These two motions act independently of each other meaning no matter how much one of them changes the other will be unaffected. While in parabolic motion the only motion …show more content…
d=ut cosθ 1/2 gt^2
Since in the flight the rocket will lose velocity due to air resistance we can subtract the change in velocity. d=u-∆ut*t cosθ 1/2 gt^2
Also since the horizontal component has nothing to do with gravity we can swap it out for the air resistance. d=u-∆ut*cosθ 1/2 at^2
This is the final equation that can be used later on.
Since the acceleration will be figured out by the drag the drag force it will have to be figured out the equation for air resistance is
F=ρCA/2 v^2
Since velocity changes with the angle and that it is already incorporated in the previous equation we can rule it out. The final equation for air resistance is.
F=ρCA/2
Hypothesis:
It is hypothesised that a bottle rocket fired at two angles that add up to 90o (e.g. 40o and 50o)will fly a similar horizontal distance.
Aim:
To prove there is a correlation in horizontal distance between two rockets fired at angles that add up to 90o eg 70o 20o and 50o 40o
Variables:
Independent Angle of launch dependent Horizontal distance travelled controlled Variety of bottle used Fuel used Ground on which the bottle was