What Are the Speed, Force, and Inertia of a Straw Rocket?

Name ______Class Period______Date______Straw Rockets Laboratory

Problem: What are the speed, force, and inertia of a straw rocket?

Gather Data: Define the following and list the units used to measure these:  Newton’s 1st Law  Inertia  Force  Newton’s 2nd Law  Constant

Hypothesis: A) How far will your rocket travel (measure in meters)? B) How fast will your rocket travel (measure in m/s)? C) How much force will your rocket require (measure in Newtons)? D) How much inertia will there be? 0-None 1-some 2-A lot

Experiement: Materials:  1 piece computer paper  1 straw  tape  pen/pencil  scissors

Method:

Build your straw rocket according to the following directions 1. Cut a 1-inch strip down the length of the paper as shown.

2. Wrap the 1 piece of paper around the straw. Begin with your paper at a diagonal. 3. Tape the paper to stay in a tube form but not stuck to the straw.

4. Fold top of tube down and tape to be airtight.

5. Cut three 5cm x 5cm squares from remaining paper.

6. Fold the squares to make triangles.

7. Fold edges of one of the open ends of triangle back 1cm to make them easier to tape to the tube.

8. Tape the three triangles onto the tube close to the open end and evenly spaced

9.When instructed to do so, insert straw into open end and blow to launch rocket.

Analyze Data: Record and calculate

Straight Path Trial Distance (m) Time (s) Acceleration Force (N) (m/s2)

Average Force =

Average Acceleration =

Calculated mass (Kg) =

Draw a diagram of rocket’s flight path.

Upward Arc Trial Distance (m) Time (s) Speed (m/s) Acceleration Force (N) (m/s2)

Average Force =

Average Acceleration =

Calculated mass (Kg) =

Draw a diagram of rocket’s flight path.

Actual Mass of rocket: (in Kg)

Formulas for calculating to fill in the columns of above

Speed = distance divided by time

Acceleration = change in velocity divided by time

Force = mass times acceleration

Calculated mass = average force divided by average acceleration

Conclusion: 1. Brainstorm variables that affected the flight of your rocket? 2. Brainstorm the constants of your rocket flights. 3. Describe 1 way your rocket displayed inertia? 4. Label your flight diagrams above with force arrows to show where your rocket experienced forces. 5. Describe the difference between your calculated and actual rocket mass. What could have caused those differences? 6. Describe how this experiment displays Newton’s First Law. 7. Which of your hypotheses were true and which were false?