Our plan for today:
1) Play with LEGO Mindstorms set
2) Blow up flour
Flour, you see, is quite flammable in airborne-dust form. So, we got into the Physics classroom and took out a tin popcorn can, some flour, and the LEGO kit. JP immediately got to work on a robot, and we started looking for key ingredients in our experiment.
We got a candle and some matches. We went outside, put the candle in the tin, and lit it. We tried dropping some flour in and we tried blowing on the layer of flour at the bottom of the tin. All was to no avail; we got no reaction. We went back inside and determined we needed a bigger flame. Vivek left to get a bunsen burner and came back with some ethanol. We tried adding a bit of that to the candle, but to no avail. A small crowd gathered but dispersed after multiple failures.
We still needed a bigger flame -- and less wind. We went back inside again and watched this video for inspiration. New strategy: we put the tin on the ground, soaked a piece of paper with the ethanol, dropped it in the tin, lit a piece of paper, dropped that in, and had a nice little fire going. We then sprinkled flour on -- a little bit at first, and then some more.
We had no real video camera, so we used the camera rocket's nose. Quality isn't great, and you don't see some of our best ones, but it's better than nothing! :)
Next meeting we'll be doing this again, since almost everyone had left by the time we succeeded. Maybe we'll get a slightly bigger boom. :)
Friday, February 24, 2006
Egg Drop Aftermath: Autopsies
As today marks the two-week anniversary of our momentous egg launch contest, I thought I'd fill you in with a little more detail concerning the fates of our three rockets.
Vivek & Co. Potato Gun
Vivek's group's egg was, needless to say, completely obliterated. The vessel carrying it was just as wholy annihilated. The egg formed a small crater in the sand of the baseball diamond (see image at right).
The potato gun suffered some trauma of its own. As you can see in the video, Mr. Clippenger screwed the cap on very thoroughly. Unfortunately, this resulted in the cap being stuck shut. Fortunately, the issue has been resolved. :)
In addition, a small black film canister was found in the barrel of the potato gun. My hypothesis is that the canister was somehow part of Vivek's team's contraption, although I can't be sure.
Peter & Co. Long Rocket
Peter's group suffered a sad blow when their rocket's engine shot up through the body, through the egg, and forced its way out the top. The rocket itself never left the ground. The egg, found shortly thereafter, had a scorch mark and had been shattered, albeit not as completely as Vivek's.
The body shows few signs of trauma. One fin had broken off, although it is unclear how. The fin was found some time after the competition had concluded for the day, and was splattered somewhat with egg. The initial assumption was that the fin had come from my group's stubby cup rocket, but was changed after witnessed the missing fin on Peter's rocket.
The upper tube shows a slight rip in the cardboard, although it is unclear whether or not this was a result of the engine malfunction. The parachute, which (using the hole in the middle) had been slipped down over the nose of the rocket prior to launch, showed slight burns and fusing, although it is again unclear whether it was a recent injury.
The interior of the body shows no readily visible signs of scorching.
Toph & Co. Cup Rocket
The rocket appeared to launch well. The top portion separated as it was supposed to; the second stage opened up like a clamshell and deployed the parachute, just as it was supposed to. But upon landing it was found that the cup had split along the side and was oozing egg.
As it was a relatively soft landing, it is not clearly understood why the cup split. It is possible, from examining the video, that the rocket may have hit a tree branch. This would explain the strange crack, which we believe could not have resulted from that landing.
A second idea is that the stresses of liftoff cracked, compressed, and/or split the egg and cup. The parachute ejection charge that separated the booster phase from the carrier phase may also be to blame.
Mysteriously, the whereabouts of the remains of the cup rocket remain unknown. The video depicts Mr. Clippenger bringing it off to one side, but it is unclear exactly what he did to it or what happened thereafter.
Conclusion
Our inaugural egg launch/drop contest was not a success. However, it was certainly entertaining and educational. We look forward to a second contest sometime next year. That contest will hopefully be both better documented and more carefully analyzed. This is the Beaver SCIENCE and Engineering Club, after all. We should attempt next time to calculate such properties of each launch as velocity, distance, height, and more.
Vivek & Co. Potato Gun
Vivek's group's egg was, needless to say, completely obliterated. The vessel carrying it was just as wholy annihilated. The egg formed a small crater in the sand of the baseball diamond (see image at right).
The potato gun suffered some trauma of its own. As you can see in the video, Mr. Clippenger screwed the cap on very thoroughly. Unfortunately, this resulted in the cap being stuck shut. Fortunately, the issue has been resolved. :)
In addition, a small black film canister was found in the barrel of the potato gun. My hypothesis is that the canister was somehow part of Vivek's team's contraption, although I can't be sure.
Peter & Co. Long Rocket
Peter's group suffered a sad blow when their rocket's engine shot up through the body, through the egg, and forced its way out the top. The rocket itself never left the ground. The egg, found shortly thereafter, had a scorch mark and had been shattered, albeit not as completely as Vivek's.
The body shows few signs of trauma. One fin had broken off, although it is unclear how. The fin was found some time after the competition had concluded for the day, and was splattered somewhat with egg. The initial assumption was that the fin had come from my group's stubby cup rocket, but was changed after witnessed the missing fin on Peter's rocket.
The upper tube shows a slight rip in the cardboard, although it is unclear whether or not this was a result of the engine malfunction. The parachute, which (using the hole in the middle) had been slipped down over the nose of the rocket prior to launch, showed slight burns and fusing, although it is again unclear whether it was a recent injury.
The interior of the body shows no readily visible signs of scorching.
Toph & Co. Cup Rocket
The rocket appeared to launch well. The top portion separated as it was supposed to; the second stage opened up like a clamshell and deployed the parachute, just as it was supposed to. But upon landing it was found that the cup had split along the side and was oozing egg.
As it was a relatively soft landing, it is not clearly understood why the cup split. It is possible, from examining the video, that the rocket may have hit a tree branch. This would explain the strange crack, which we believe could not have resulted from that landing.
A second idea is that the stresses of liftoff cracked, compressed, and/or split the egg and cup. The parachute ejection charge that separated the booster phase from the carrier phase may also be to blame.
Mysteriously, the whereabouts of the remains of the cup rocket remain unknown. The video depicts Mr. Clippenger bringing it off to one side, but it is unclear exactly what he did to it or what happened thereafter.
Conclusion
Our inaugural egg launch/drop contest was not a success. However, it was certainly entertaining and educational. We look forward to a second contest sometime next year. That contest will hopefully be both better documented and more carefully analyzed. This is the Beaver SCIENCE and Engineering Club, after all. We should attempt next time to calculate such properties of each launch as velocity, distance, height, and more.
Friday, February 17, 2006
Egg Drop Aftermath: Update
As you saw in Vivek's last post, our thrice-delayed egg drop contest was finally concluded last Friday. I think it was a big success, at least in terms of entertainment value. :)
The only bad thing that happened all day was the final rocket getting stuck in a tree. I am now happy to report that Mr. Clippenger has managed to retrieve the rocket, and it seems to be in pretty good shape, despite its week exposed to the elements (including snow, and lots of it).
You can see in Vivek's video that it was hanging very precariously from the end of a thin branch. It actually fell from that spot even before we went back inside, only to land more securely in the neighboring pine. Fortunately, it's fine now. I was prepared to blast the tree with a potato...
The stormy edge of the silver lining to the stormy cloud of landing-in-a-tree-ness is that, well, we forget to start the camera rolling. :( Hey, don't blame us -- it was freezing out there, the wind knocked over the launch pad and rocket if you waited more than 30 seconds, it was our fourth launch of the day, and we were eager to go back inside and eat lunch. But the recovery means it shall live to film another day -- the meeting after next, perhaps?
Speaking of last meeting, the consensus at this point is to break out the Mindstorms and play around. Stay tuned.
The only bad thing that happened all day was the final rocket getting stuck in a tree. I am now happy to report that Mr. Clippenger has managed to retrieve the rocket, and it seems to be in pretty good shape, despite its week exposed to the elements (including snow, and lots of it).
You can see in Vivek's video that it was hanging very precariously from the end of a thin branch. It actually fell from that spot even before we went back inside, only to land more securely in the neighboring pine. Fortunately, it's fine now. I was prepared to blast the tree with a potato...
The stormy edge of the silver lining to the stormy cloud of landing-in-a-tree-ness is that, well, we forget to start the camera rolling. :( Hey, don't blame us -- it was freezing out there, the wind knocked over the launch pad and rocket if you waited more than 30 seconds, it was our fourth launch of the day, and we were eager to go back inside and eat lunch. But the recovery means it shall live to film another day -- the meeting after next, perhaps?
Speaking of last meeting, the consensus at this point is to break out the Mindstorms and play around. Stay tuned.
Sunday, January 08, 2006
Sixth Meeting Preview: Egg Drop Finale
This Friday we are concluding our egg drop contest, which we have spent the past two meetings preparing. Attendance dropped to an all-time low last meeting, and we're hoping to get some more people at this one.
Peter Wilmot's group will launch their egg-rocket, as will mine. Vivek's group will launch their egg out of the potato gun. And filming all the excitement will be a rocket with a down-facing video camera launched seconds before the others, which will hopefully give us some idea of how high the different eggs went.
Come by and watch!
Peter Wilmot's group will launch their egg-rocket, as will mine. Vivek's group will launch their egg out of the potato gun. And filming all the excitement will be a rocket with a down-facing video camera launched seconds before the others, which will hopefully give us some idea of how high the different eggs went.
Come by and watch!
Thursday, December 01, 2005
Potential Future Projects
There's so much fun to be had with ballistics, robotics, engineering and science in general. Way too much to fit it all in, especially considering we can only meet once every two weeks. But here are some potential long-term projects.
---
Potato Gun: Build One
Build a new potato gun. More powerful, more adaptable, smaller, bigger, easier to use, whatever -- just better in general. We could stick with combustion or move to a pnuematics-based system.
Potato Gun: Stress Testing
Fire a potato at things and see how well they hold up. Brick wall? Wood wall? Pile of cans? Pile of trash cans? A dummy?
Oh, wouldn't it be fun to have a dummy...
;-)
Potato Rocket [& Launcher]
Stick a rocket engine in a potato and see what happens. Or adapt the potato gun to work as a sort of potato rocket launcher. :)
Rockets: Misc.
Experiment with building rockets in different ways. Two stage, multiple simultaneous engines, booster rockets - you name it. Maybe have a contest, "who can build the coolest rocket."
Rocket-Powered Merry-Go-Round
Stick a rocket on the side of a miniaturemerry-go-round and make a rocket-powered merry-go-round.
Rocket-Powered Other Stuff
Name something, and we'll make it rocket-powered. Frisbee, for instance.
Well, not anything... safety first, remember! :)
Bridge-Building Contest
Build a bridge. The one that can support the most weight wins!
(Bonus points for making it potato gun-proof.)
Remote Controlled Car/Boat/Plane
Bonus points for making it intelligent, and thus a robot. More bonus points for making it rocket-powered! :)
Soccer Robot
Make a soccer-playing robot... or, even better, a team of soccer-playing robots!
Robotics: Misc.
Make other cool robots. :)
Hovercraft
Bigger? Smaller? Faster? Maneuverable?
Rocket-powered???
Actual Physics
Calculate how far a potato or rocket goes, project trajectories, and so on. This would just be incorporated into our other projects.
---
I will update this list as we come up with more ideas. Stay tuned!
---
Potato Gun: Build One
Build a new potato gun. More powerful, more adaptable, smaller, bigger, easier to use, whatever -- just better in general. We could stick with combustion or move to a pnuematics-based system.
Potato Gun: Stress Testing
Fire a potato at things and see how well they hold up. Brick wall? Wood wall? Pile of cans? Pile of trash cans? A dummy?
Oh, wouldn't it be fun to have a dummy...
;-)
Potato Rocket [& Launcher]
Stick a rocket engine in a potato and see what happens. Or adapt the potato gun to work as a sort of potato rocket launcher. :)
Rockets: Misc.
Experiment with building rockets in different ways. Two stage, multiple simultaneous engines, booster rockets - you name it. Maybe have a contest, "who can build the coolest rocket."
Rocket-Powered Merry-Go-Round
Stick a rocket on the side of a miniaturemerry-go-round and make a rocket-powered merry-go-round.
Rocket-Powered Other Stuff
Name something, and we'll make it rocket-powered. Frisbee, for instance.
Well, not anything... safety first, remember! :)
Bridge-Building Contest
Build a bridge. The one that can support the most weight wins!
(Bonus points for making it potato gun-proof.)
Remote Controlled Car/Boat/Plane
Bonus points for making it intelligent, and thus a robot. More bonus points for making it rocket-powered! :)
Soccer Robot
Make a soccer-playing robot... or, even better, a team of soccer-playing robots!
Robotics: Misc.
Make other cool robots. :)
Hovercraft
Bigger? Smaller? Faster? Maneuverable?
Rocket-powered???
Actual Physics
Calculate how far a potato or rocket goes, project trajectories, and so on. This would just be incorporated into our other projects.
---
I will update this list as we come up with more ideas. Stay tuned!
Third Meeting - Preview
Tomorrow, December 2nd, we are having our fourth meeting. Unfortunately, it will be slightly shorter than usual because of a special schedule.
We will be starting an egg drop contest, which we will finish at our next meeting. Contestants must get an egg as high as possible while still having it return to the ground intact. There are four options available:
1. Send your egg up in a rocket. High risk, high yield, medium-high fun.
2. Launch your egg out of the potato gun. High risk, medium-high yield, high fun.
3. Toss your egg up in the air. Low risk, low yield, low fun.
4. Come up with something else!
We will supply:
- Rocket bodies
- Engines
- All other rocket launch equipment (pad etc.)
- Potato gun
- Plastic cups
- Everything left over from the Rube Goldberg machines contest
- And anything else you can find :)
---
If you couldn't care less about eggs, a couple kids might also start experimenting with LEGO MindStorms. We will also talk about a couple of upcoming local competitions which we might want to enter.
We will be starting an egg drop contest, which we will finish at our next meeting. Contestants must get an egg as high as possible while still having it return to the ground intact. There are four options available:
1. Send your egg up in a rocket. High risk, high yield, medium-high fun.
2. Launch your egg out of the potato gun. High risk, medium-high yield, high fun.
3. Toss your egg up in the air. Low risk, low yield, low fun.
4. Come up with something else!
We will supply:
- Rocket bodies
- Engines
- All other rocket launch equipment (pad etc.)
- Potato gun
- Plastic cups
- Everything left over from the Rube Goldberg machines contest
- And anything else you can find :)
---
If you couldn't care less about eggs, a couple kids might also start experimenting with LEGO MindStorms. We will also talk about a couple of upcoming local competitions which we might want to enter.
Tuesday, November 15, 2005
Inventory: Robotics & Other
As you may already know, the BSEC's goals extend far beyond model rocketry. While we're not off to such an explosive start with our robotics program, we've had lots of fun -- the most fun of all, in fact -- with our potato gun.
What follows is a partial listing of our non-rocketry materials.
Toph Tucker
1 potato gun
1 beginner's LEGO MindStorms set
1 even more of a beginner's LEGO MindStorms set (virtually non-programmable)
1 robotic arm (unassembled; quite complex)
Peter Wilmot
Know-how, experience and some robotics magazines. Details to follow.
Vivek Pai
Enthusiasm and "neverending charm." :-) Details to follow.
What follows is a partial listing of our non-rocketry materials.
Toph Tucker
1 potato gun
1 beginner's LEGO MindStorms set
1 even more of a beginner's LEGO MindStorms set (virtually non-programmable)
1 robotic arm (unassembled; quite complex)
Peter Wilmot
Know-how, experience and some robotics magazines. Details to follow.
Vivek Pai
Enthusiasm and "neverending charm." :-) Details to follow.
Monday, November 14, 2005
Inventory: Rockets
Following the disappointment of last Friday's failed launch, I have re-evaluated our supplies. The club has actually inherited a fairly large supply of rocketry materials from its three co-founders. A partial list follows.
---
Toph Tucker
2 fully built & waterproofed rockets (engine sizes A / B / C)
2 unbuilt rockets
2 unbuilt mini rockets
4 large launch pads (various stages of completion)
1 mini launch pad
5 "Electron Beam" electronic launch controllers
2 spare parachutes
2 paratrooper figures
3 launch rod caps (with wind streamers)
1 plain orange streamer
4 B6-4 engines
LOTS of wadding, plugs and manuals :)
Peter Wilmot
Lots of fun stuff. Unclear how much we'll be able to use. Details to follow. :)
Vivek Pai
At least two built standard-sized rockets. Details to follow.
---
Wish List
While I have the four B6-4 engines -- that's roughly medium-sized, folks -- I do not have any igniters to go with them. That, of course, is an issue, and basically means that we can't use those engines until we get igniters for them.
Over Thanksgiving break I will be looking into some new acquisitions, possibly including additional engines/igniters, larger engines, and larger rocket kits. We hope to have a brief planning session before the break in order to decide what we want to get.
At some point in the future we hope to attempt a multi-stage rocket. Instead of enjoying only one thrust phase, multi-stage rockets drop their lower portion as they peak and begin another thrust phase. It would also be fun to see what we could do with larger rockets. I'm still bent on including a couple of small payloads: candy bags with parachutes and a small bunch of ants. (Why? Just because they'd survive! They fall slowly enough that, as long as we don't fly them into the upper atmosphere or kill them during launch, they'd make it down all right.)
Stay tuned, and be sure to email one of us if you have any suggestions.
---
Toph Tucker
2 fully built & waterproofed rockets (engine sizes A / B / C)
2 unbuilt rockets
2 unbuilt mini rockets
4 large launch pads (various stages of completion)
1 mini launch pad
5 "Electron Beam" electronic launch controllers
2 spare parachutes
2 paratrooper figures
3 launch rod caps (with wind streamers)
1 plain orange streamer
4 B6-4 engines
LOTS of wadding, plugs and manuals :)
Peter Wilmot
Lots of fun stuff. Unclear how much we'll be able to use. Details to follow. :)
Vivek Pai
At least two built standard-sized rockets. Details to follow.
---
Wish List
While I have the four B6-4 engines -- that's roughly medium-sized, folks -- I do not have any igniters to go with them. That, of course, is an issue, and basically means that we can't use those engines until we get igniters for them.
Over Thanksgiving break I will be looking into some new acquisitions, possibly including additional engines/igniters, larger engines, and larger rocket kits. We hope to have a brief planning session before the break in order to decide what we want to get.
At some point in the future we hope to attempt a multi-stage rocket. Instead of enjoying only one thrust phase, multi-stage rockets drop their lower portion as they peak and begin another thrust phase. It would also be fun to see what we could do with larger rockets. I'm still bent on including a couple of small payloads: candy bags with parachutes and a small bunch of ants. (Why? Just because they'd survive! They fall slowly enough that, as long as we don't fly them into the upper atmosphere or kill them during launch, they'd make it down all right.)
Stay tuned, and be sure to email one of us if you have any suggestions.
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