Hello all, and happy friday.
I am in need of a bit of assistance, my son is doing a science fair project on the impact of fins on a rocket's altitude reached. We have chosen the Apogee Avion (for a number of reason..not the least of which being hometown business) and have a solid plan, BUT, we are a bit lost on materials appropriate for a 4th grader to understand what is going on. The school is big on experiential learning, so the process is a big part of it (for this reason, my wife and I have decided to let the weights be variable aka, letting him realize more fins = more weight), so we are looking for materials that help him learn without spelling out what happens as fin # increases.
Any thoughts on where we can look?
just to answer some questions brewing in y'all-
The plan at this moment is to make 5 Avion's: versions with
2 fins,
3 fins,
4 fins,
5 fins, and
6 fins.
launching each 3 times, with a Jolly Logic altimeter on B4-4 (i'm thinking...A8-3 is enticing, but seems dangerous at higher fin counts, and our launch field isn't huge). Fire department has been contacted, and no permit needed at this time, just a Type A fire extinguisher, permission for field (easily obtained), and a courtesy call to local police as a 'headsup.' We'll launch as many as possible at a time to keep conditions stable as possible.
Charting the differences, and weighing each should help give him some decent results that, hopefully, are supported by research, rather than vice versa. Now I admit there are a few too many variable that can be at play here, but the idea, as stated earlier, is the experience, and since he came up with it on his own, and the teacher approved, we're running with it.
I am in need of a bit of assistance, my son is doing a science fair project on the impact of fins on a rocket's altitude reached. We have chosen the Apogee Avion (for a number of reason..not the least of which being hometown business) and have a solid plan, BUT, we are a bit lost on materials appropriate for a 4th grader to understand what is going on. The school is big on experiential learning, so the process is a big part of it (for this reason, my wife and I have decided to let the weights be variable aka, letting him realize more fins = more weight), so we are looking for materials that help him learn without spelling out what happens as fin # increases.
Any thoughts on where we can look?
just to answer some questions brewing in y'all-
The plan at this moment is to make 5 Avion's: versions with
2 fins,
3 fins,
4 fins,
5 fins, and
6 fins.
launching each 3 times, with a Jolly Logic altimeter on B4-4 (i'm thinking...A8-3 is enticing, but seems dangerous at higher fin counts, and our launch field isn't huge). Fire department has been contacted, and no permit needed at this time, just a Type A fire extinguisher, permission for field (easily obtained), and a courtesy call to local police as a 'headsup.' We'll launch as many as possible at a time to keep conditions stable as possible.
Charting the differences, and weighing each should help give him some decent results that, hopefully, are supported by research, rather than vice versa. Now I admit there are a few too many variable that can be at play here, but the idea, as stated earlier, is the experience, and since he came up with it on his own, and the teacher approved, we're running with it.