Rocket Projectile Practicum Post

Experiment:
Our task was to take a rocket and predict where it will land using our formulas from our unit on projectile motion.

Materials:
Rocket
Angles
Bike Pump

Steps:
1. We found the actual velocity of the rocket by testing it at a different angle and seeing how far it went. We worked backwards using trigonometric ratios.

2. We started with an angle of 25 degrees and found that the actual velocity of the rocket at the time of takeoff was 19.92m/s.

3. We then could predict the time using the viy (from the new angle (40 degrees)) and the equation
x = 1/2at^2+vit

We found the time as 3.114s

4. We next found the change in position using equation Vx = (change in) x/ t

Change in position: 39.87m

Conclusions:
The actual position of the rocket was 32.9m. We were somewhat off in our calculations, but I think it was because of the wind on the day that we first tested. If the wind speed had been constant, I believe that our prediction would have been correct.

This is a picture of the calculations I took