Rocketry Calculator

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Ok, added. Test it and give me your opinions.
The calculator itself looks good. The output drill values in "Number of 64ths" (e.g.) are a little odd, but I understand what they mean. I feel like the rest of the verbiage and some other bits could use tightening up though.
  1. It's on the pull-down menu, but not on the "Rocketry Calculator" page
  2. On it's page, the "L" in Altimeter should not be capitalized
  3. There's a lot of placeholder text still there (e.g.: "Calculated Form", "Starting Form. Basic Calculated Fields Sample", and "A description of the section goes here"
  4. To me, the opening background is muddled by the mention of accelerometers. All you really need is your last sentence: "Barometric altimeters mounted inside a rocket require vent holes that allow the movement of air between the inside compartment and nature."
  5. In the paragraph right after that, you mention positioning the vent holes to avoid turbulence but then say nothing about how to do that.
Finally: I find it slightly weird that the pull down menu on the home page is called "Rocketry Calculator" (singular), whereas it is actually a collection of many individual calculators (plural). I'd pluralize that pull-down menu.

I'm racking my brains to think of other useful calculators you can put here. Do you have any intention of adding shroud templates and fin marking guides etc., or are you sticking with literal calculators?
 
Hello nice work, it would be very convenient to have all the useful calculators in one page. How about descent rate calculators, for parachutes and streamers?

A few minor comments on your thrust to weight page. Higher thrust and more velocity off of the launch pad results in less weather cocking (not more). The angle of weather cocking can be calculated, it involves a ratio of the velocity of the wind to the velocity of the rocket at the end of the launch rod. (Rocksim includes this in the simulation results.)
 
The calculator itself looks good. The output drill values in "Number of 64ths" (e.g.) are a little odd, but I understand what they mean. I feel like the rest of the verbiage and some other bits could use tightening up though.

My wife said the same thing. It is tough to make a vent hole calculator that is useful and will deliver these types of results. I made 4-5 different ones until I settled here.

I'm racking my brains to think of other useful calculators you can put here. Do you have any intention of adding shroud templates and fin marking guides etc., or are you sticking with literal calculators?

I would like to do so. I may have to think about how to do that for a little while.
 
Hello nice work, it would be very convenient to have all the useful calculators in one page. How about descent rate calculators, for parachutes and streamers?

A few minor comments on your thrust to weight page. Higher thrust and more velocity off of the launch pad results in less weather cocking (not more). The angle of weather cocking can be calculated, it involves a ratio of the velocity of the wind to the velocity of the rocket at the end of the launch rod. (Rocksim includes this in the simulation results.)

Corrected.
 
cwbullet

How about a calculator for scale when up scaling or down scaling a rocket

Or if the original size of rocket is x and I want to upscale (or down scale) it to size z what number
would I multiply x by to get z ?

What you got so far is looking good !

Bobby
 
cwbullet

How about a calculator for scale when up scaling or down scaling a rocket

Or if the original size of rocket is x and I want to upscale (or down scale) it to size z what number
would I multiply x by to get z ?

What you got so far is looking good !

Bobby

By diameter? or are you choosing a tube and want the X to 1 scaling?
 
Why does altimeter vent port sizing require 2 or more vent ports? All of my 4" and smaller diameter rockets have a single vent port.
 
Why does altimeter vent port sizing require 2 or more vent ports? All of my 4" and smaller diameter rockets have a single vent port.
Agreed, it should allow one port as an option.

I've been poking three holes in my small rockets, now you have me reconsidering...
 
What I am finding is that a calculator for streamer descent rate may be a little more complicated!
With all of the materials, manufacturine techniques, packing/ storage and aspect ratios used in streamers you will not be able to come up with a perfect calculator. There are some interesting research papers on flags and streamers that focuses more on the material mass and frequency of oscilation in a given airspeed that determines the drag. The problem with a calculator is that you would need to know the frequencies of each material and width and length, which requires a lot of testing. This is why most hobby calculators are simple and focus on mylar, nylon, and plastic streamers in a 10:1 or 12:1 aspect ratio and are meant for low or mid power. The ultra high aspect ratio, tracking streamers that have been flown lately are very inefficient, due to burbles and unique airflow the drag is next to impossible to accurately calculate.
 
Nice work so far, Chuck, I've been trying it out. I have a request for the Thrust to Weight ratio calculator, could it either accept a mass with digits after the decimal like 1.2 lbs, or allow for entering the weight in ounces? There is a big difference between a 1lb rocket, and a 1.5 lb rocket.
 
Wind drift formula idea.

Inputs, crosswind velocity (mph)
Descent rate (FPS)
Altitude of chute deploy (feet)

Crosswind velocity mph*(5280 ft/mi)*(1 hr/3600s) = Crosswind velocity FPS

Altitude of chute deploy divided by descent rate = drift time in seconds.

Drift time * crosswind velocity FPS = lateral drift distance.

This may help someone trying to configure recovery options for smaller flying fields.
I get bored and do stuff by hand a lot.
 
Nice work so far, Chuck, I've been trying it out. I have a request for the Thrust to Weight ratio calculator, could it either accept a mass with digits after the decimal like 1.2 lbs, or allow for entering the weight in ounces? There is a big difference between a 1lb rocket, and a 1.5 lb rocket.

You can now enter decimals. It automatically accepts digits. I had to ask it to take integers.
 
@cwbullet Here's a gist on GitHub with the javascript for a comprehensive scale modeling calculator I wrote a while back. It knows about common scale factors in various realms, has a calculator tape style history, and will output text or csv listings so you can make a table/spreadsheet for scale models. Creates its own DOM objects so does not need any accompanying HTML. You'll probably need to update it a bit (get rid of Firebug API hook, etc.) and style with your own css. https://gist.github.com/dbcook/598e0a0c00df1c83ab728fba10f21b2a
 
First: great idea chuck, and thanks for doing it.

I've only browsed the thread and glanced at the site so far. I'll be more thorough later. Here are some first thoughts.

Regarding this:
By diameter? or are you choosing a tube and want the X to 1 scaling?
The ideal would be, IMHO, to enter the original length and diameter, then choose from a drop-down box whether to enter the new diameter, length, or scale. You might also offer space for other dimensions that will be scaled by the same factor; these can be diameters, lengths, or any other dimension that the user wants scaled. For extra credit, use user entered labels for these additional scaled dimensions.

Regarding the BP calculator, I'd like to see another word or two about the shear pins. Where you say "#2 shear pins" and "#4 shear pins", I presume you are referring to #2 and #4 nylon screws employed as shear pins, since that seems to be the norm. It would be good to state that explicitly, since there are other possibilities.
 
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