| Elena's Science Fair Project Rocketry and 7th grade science |
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| A payload bay was inserted under the nosecone to house the alitmeter.
Three equally spaced holes were drilled into the payload bay to
maintain atmospheric pressure inside. Two additional nosecones were fabricated. In addition to the original ogive (left), conical and blunt nosecones were made. In theory, the blunt would have the highest drag and the lowest altitude, and the conical would be in the middle with ogive having the highest altitude and lowest drag. The nosecones were ballasted so that they all weighed the same thereby eliminating weight as a factor. |
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| Elena, ever the ham, poses with the rocket. Maybe someday she'll be a model on a TV game show. The white tape holds the nosecone in place and keeps the altimeter from falling out when the parachute is ejected. |
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| Here's a shot of one of the many flights made gathering data. The final results were mixed. We used B motors to keep the altitude down for ease of recovery. The altimeter's smallest resolution was 40'. As as result, we were unable to measure any difference between the ogive and the conical, but we were able to see that the blunt was indeed draggier. The main lesson learned was to use an altimeter with higher resolution. 10' increments would likely have enabled us to see the expected difference. But otherwise, it was still a good exercise. I got to do the project one-on-one with Elena. While I enjoy the company of all four of my kids, spending time with them solo is always special. She's a pretty smart kid, and I hope my participation helps her pursue some form of science as a career. Doug
1-10-2009 |
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