Category: Science

SpaceX Launch

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Now SpaceX has created a successful Falcon Heavy.  This means that SpaceX has now created the most powerful operational rocket in the world by a factor of two.

 

I think that it was really cool to see how the rocket launched with all of the fuel coming out the bottom. Also, I could hear the sonic boom when the rocket broke the sound barrier. It did not sound so loud when I watched it on video, but I’m sure that if I had been there in person it would have been incredibly loud. Way louder than I had heard it when it was caught on camera. I was really surprised about the actual size of the rocket because it was so much bigger compared to the other things around it.

 

I wonder how the sonic boom is created when the rocket passed the sound barrier and why it was so loud. After all, it isn’t as if the rocket is hitting something, it’s just passing more sky and air. I also wonder how high up the sound barrier is and how long it takes for the rocket to reach it. Can anyone see the sound barrier if they travel up to it? Why is the sound barrier called the sound barrier? What’s so special about it?

Here is the video of the launch:

Rube Goldberg #6

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Success! Our machine worked! It did not have as many steps as we had hoped but it worked really well. My guinea pig took a little while to realize the carrot was in her cage because we had failed so many times before and she didn’t realize it actually worked this time. It worked really well and I am proud of what we built.

If we had more time we would probably add more steps to make our machine longer. Instead, we only have ten but I am happy with the outcome, anyway. I think that our steps could have been more elaborate, also, if we had met more often. Unfortunately, none of us had many free days in common and we only met a few times.

I realized that we had a lot of very similar steps that were repetitive. My group and I went back to add some different ones. Unfortunately, my housekeeper took apart our machine by accident, so we never had the chance to add any more steps.

We are having some challenges because Naomi and I both have apple computers, and we could not access wevideo on them. We are going to try again at school on our chromebooks, and hopefully we will end up with a good video.

I really enjoyed doing this project and I wish we could do it again. Then, I would know to meet more often and work with fewer people in order to have more time.

This is our final video:

Success!!!!

 

 

Rube Goldberg #5

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Now that we are almost done with our project, we were getting close to the ground. Our whole machine has to be on a slant the whole time, so we had to find a way to get back up to a higher level so that we could then continue going down again. We decided that we would need something to act as a mini trampoline, so we decided to use a tambourine. It bounced of differently every time, so we decided that we would have to end our machine. We planned our last step to be a carrot rolling down a ramp. Instead, I changed it to dominoes hitting the carrot, causing it to roll down the tunnel into my guinea pig’s cage.

It took a while to get the last step to work. The ball didn’t knock over the dominoes, and when it did the carrot didn’t get pushed down the ramp. I cut the carrot into a ball shape so that it would roll more easily. I think that in a little more time we will succeed in feeding my guinea pig a carrot. We were so close but our most recent attempt the carrot did not get all the way down the ramp into the guinea pig cage.

Here is a video we used as inspiration:

Rube Goldberg #4

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Now we have built about half of our machine. We decided that our project mainly consisted of dominoes, tunnels, and ramps. In order to create a completely different step, we added a tambourine that we use as a trampoline for the ball. After that, we are going to build a seesaw the ball tilts and rolls down. For our last step, feeding my guinea pig a carrot, the carrot might end up rolling down a ramp into the cage. Instead, we wanted to try and find a more significant and original step to complete our goal but we might not be able to. Our group is having a little bit of trouble because we don’t have many free days in common.
I am having a lot of fun building our Rube Goldberg even though it can be challenging. I wish that we could do this project multiple times so that we could all try different ideas. Also, our projects would probably be more complex because we would no what to do from learning from our mistakes.
My goal is that my group can either exceed or meet our expectations. I hope that our actual machine will end up even better than our plan. I expect that we will finish by the deadline but we will have to meet very often.
We watched some videos to help us along the way.

Rube Goldberg #3

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We have gotten almost half of our work built and it works really well. When we first started testing our machine, we were having some trouble deciding who should video the tests, drop the marble to start the test, and which two people would be explaining the steps. We ended up figuring it out in the end, anyway. I really like our project so far, but I think that after our next three steps it will become really hard to keep our machine on a slope because it will be so close to the ground. Rube Goldberg is a lot of fun for me but it’s also challenging to build what you think of.

Rube Goldberg #2

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We started our machine with a roller coaster that a marble rolls down. Originally, in our plan, that marble would knock over dominoes. Instead, we added a ramp in between because we thought it would help insure that the marble didn’t miss the dominoes. We are having some problems, too, because our whole machine has to be built on a slight slope. We are having a little trouble keeping our project a slope. We aren’t even halfway done building and our last step that we have built so far is less than a foot from the ground. I think we might be kind of ahead, but it’s a good thing because if we do end up have to do any major changes we will have time.

Rube Goldberg #1

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When we first learned that we were starting Rube Goldberg, Mrs. Cooper told us that the limit of people in one group was four. I am in a group with Naomi, Sarina, and Carlie. We decided to do the project in my room at my house. There isn’t that much room to build so we are just going to have to build in a circle. When we were feeding my guinea pigs we thought that it would be fun to make the goal of our machine to feed one of them a carrot. In our plan we had exactly eleven steps, but as we are building we need to add some parts and change some parts to make our machine work more efficiently. Also, we don’t have many free days in common so we decided as a group that we still shouldn’t make decisions without each other.

Final Rocketry Reflection

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Final Rocketry Reflection
Emily Hyman

I really enjoyed doing rocketry overall. It was fun to build and launch all three of our rockets together as a group. Also, I enjoyed putting our rocketry presentation together because it was a lot of fun to present it to our classmates and our parents. When we were building our rockets, we learned that lighter rockets go higher. We also learned that if our nose cone is not adhered well, it will just pop off when the rocket is meant to launch. Additionally, we learned that we can accomplish more with teamwork. If we did not use teamwork, the process of building our rocket would have taken a lot longer. Also, the rocket would not be based on all of our opinions. This might cause our rocket’s design to have more flaws.
When we succeeded in our first rocket launch, we were confident that our second rocket launch would do just as well, and if not maybe even better! Unfortunately, our second rocket launch did not do as well as our first one. Although, failing only made us want to succeed more. At our third rocket launch, our rocket did better than our second, but still not as good as our first. However, we were really proud of all our rockets because we tried our best and had fun even when we did not succeed. Having three launches let us experiment different ways to build our rocket. Also, we had the chance to learn from our mistakes and try again.
Working as a group, I learned that we need to make sure everyone got to share their ideas. I learned that sometimes If I do tasks with my whole team, it will turn out better than doing it myself. I think that sometimes I spoke over others. I should have let them take a turn speaking instead of continuing to speak myself.
I think that in the future it will be easier to do group projects because everyone learned valuable collaboration lessons. I think that we will remember what to do next time. For example, we will not speak over each other. Instead, we should talk to each other and compromise to solve problems or arguments.
Overall, I really enjoyed the whole process of the rocketry unit. It was so fun and exciting to build and launch our rockets. Working as a team we learned lessons that will be useful to us at many times in the future. If we could do the rocketry unit again I would participate gladly.