CS382:Equation-outline

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Aerodynamics of Rocket Flight

Overview

This unit will last for two weeks, and will explore the concepts relating to aerodynamics through the modeling of rocket flights and how the flow of thrust through the nozzle at the end of the rockets affects the flight distance of the rocket. This will require use of simulations that are designed to handle such problems, as well as some explanation about aerodynamics in general.

Background Reading for Teachers and TAs

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerodynamics

 * Wikipedia tells it all about the aerodynamics, one should know. Some ideas about modeling could be obtained. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_tunnel

* At the lower part of the site - it talks about visualizing the results and the whole simulation of the wind tunnel. Interesting. 

The two above mentioned wikipedia articles could be used to extract important aspects to introduce students to the basics of the fluid dynamics so that they understand science behind the model easier and better.

http://www.esteseducator.com/Pdf_files/PhysicsCurr.pdf

   * Contains everything that we need. 

   * Just an observation: this states "for grades 8, 9, 10, 11"; is it going to be satisfactory/appropriate for college freshmen?

As I have already mentioned in the below lecture notes NOTE; it does imply that, but we are talking about very specific material which will in combination with further more-advanced ideas about rocket flight produce an appropriate material for the freshmen.

Reading Assignments for Students

The ideas from: http://www.esteseducator.com/Pdf_files/PhysicsCurr.pdf

could be applied cause it's quite long document and it could be chosen what they should read; it contains so called student book with the material to be read-that can be used.

Reference Material

Not sure if I got this part; but I guess references could be to the links above; I saw similar work in other units from other people.

Lecture Notes

Lecture 1: Aerodynamics Forces - What they are and what they do

• Go into a brief review of the previous units, touch on concepts from the earlier topics, and explain how they relate to this unit, I.E. How modeling a rocket is different from modeling a bridge.

• Explain the basis of the science behind rocket modeling. Introduce them to basic 4 forces that affect an object flying through the air : drag, lift, thrust and gravity; and what's is their role in the whole unit concept.

• As the simulation applets are somewhat counter-intuitive and the abbreviations and acronyms are gibberish unless one is familiar with the subject already, I believe that it's especially important to explain what some of these variables mean, how they come into play, and just generally prepare the class to use the software associated with the lab.

Attached to the above explanation; briefly introduce Lab activity-and how it works.

Lecture 2: Newton's Laws of motion - How they Govern the movement of objects

• Introduce Newton's Laws of Motion which govern the movement of all objects on Earth and in space.
• Describe and demonstrate the effects of the three Laws of motion on moving objects.

• This will be review for some freshmen straight out of high school physics, and bewilderingly new for others. Juggling the level of interest and knowledge for even a small class may be difficult, not to mention a huge class.

I will try to be more clear; the talk would be about very specified on the flight of a rocket - which might be a case with level of specificity which not many have met before; meaning that we will go very specific; some stuff to note at, some obvious stuff; a bit deeper than general stuff they probably learned. Could be altered though.

• Introduce and use the vocabulary related to rocket flight.

Lecture 3: Introducing Model Rockets -How Rockets Are constructed: the effects of aerodynamics Forces

• Introduce students to the parts and functions of a model rocket
• Describe the phase of a model rocket flight and relate each phase to the aerodynamic forces at work.
• Introduce and use the vocabulary related to rocket flight. (new terms of course)

Lecture 4: The Laws of motion - Putting them together with model rockets

• Relate Laws of Motion to model rocket engines and to the flight sequence of a model rocket
• Finishing notes about model water rocket construction and its flight
• Note how important it is to build precise model and to be careful craftsman when constructing one of these models
• Introduce and use the vocabulary related to rocket flight. (final look at it)

Lab

Note: I believe that it may be prudent to follow the same structure as the preceding unit with this one. That is to say the first lab is a concept / developmental stage in which the students use software provided to simulate something covered in the unit, then to go out and actually do it based on the results of their simulations. That being said:

   * The First Lab would consist of the students using rocket simulators to simulate the launching of a water rocket. This provides an excellent opportunity for a tie-in, as we could have them use the current weather station data for the conditions of the launch. Can you be more specific about which simulator you're recommending using? 

The simulators are listed below; under section : #Rockets

   * The Second Lab would potentially consist of the students building a real version of the rocket they simulated and actually launching them. The possible problems and benefits of this are outlined in the "Physical Models" part of this section. 

Note: The above posted 'Educator' contains allot of material about water rockets (as I said - its all we need); and also about actually doing it physically. Useful for lab guides too.

Rockets

Rocket Modeler II

   * This will simulate several different types of Rockets, Air-propelled, Water-propelled, and Solid Fuel propelled, and contains a "Ballistic" option. Has numerous slide bars that can adjust things such as the length, width, tail, fuel content, etc. of the Rocket. Also allows you to determine the angle of launch and the launch conditions, as well as simulating different launch locations such as the Moon and Mars. 

   * If we do a lab that involves actually building a rocket, this could give students an idea of what to expect, given the physical statistics of their rocket, as well as the conditions under which the rocket is launched. Ideally, it would give them the exact idea of what to expect-- that would be the purpose of modeling it in the first place, then building the actual thing that worked on the computer 

Rocket Thrust Simulator

   * Simulates the amount of thrust generated based on a number of variables, including type of fuel used, the size of the nozzle, and the altitude of the rocket, as well as the pressure on the fuel that is being generated. 

Atmospheric Effects Simulator

   * Simulates atmospheric effects. 

The 3 basic simulators of the rocket flight - a rocket model. Besides computer simulation, there could be guides followed up to manufacture a real life water rocket (e.g.) which could fly around; possible lab.

At Last:

http://www.seeds2lrn.com/rocketSoftware.html

The main page that we can focus on: contains downloadable software for a flight of water rocket: Called : Water Rocket Fun v.3.4

This program can help students and rocketeers understand the physics of water rockets and how to optimize their water rocket launches to obtain the highest apogees. The interface is designed to be easy to use and understand. But don't be fooled by the program's simple layout, few if any of the other simulators you may find are as accurate. Under the hood this program is pretty sophisticated and thorough. The methodology includes both incompressible and compressible fluid mechanics along with a fair amount of thermodynamics and numerical methods to provide accurate water rocket apogee predictions. Very usable! Good stuff.

Physical Models

We're interested in possibly having students construct a physical water rocket. However, while it would be a great way to approach the subject matter in the unit a hands-on fashion, there are potential safety concerns about launching water rockets on campus, and potential logistical issues with finding a remote location to launch the rockets from.

   * Is the football field too small or too crowded? Estimate how large the area needs to be, how long and when we need it

The Flight of the rocket can be adjusted, so having a smaller or bigger area should not represent any problems. And to answer a question to 100ft vs 10 ft flight; it is perfectly fixable with just adjusting the size of bottle used and amount of water in them; I guess that is the advantage of the water rocket.

Additionally, the materials for this are avaliable for us around us - water bottles are main material - everything else needed for a rocket model is really cheap. Besides that, launcher needs to analyzed if it will cost significantly - or generally the launching procedure - because I think it's even launch-able without a special launching site.

   * http://www.et.byu.edu/~wheeler/benchtop/ 

-Further info about rocket models - a website of a person which had done this too many times to be expert - so he explains it all on his webpage.

   * The main thing here is to make sure that the modeling/simulation of the water rocket goes hand in hand with the actual building of a water rocket: we ideally would want them to build exactly what they modeled, so that (assuming the model worked) they know it will work properly. Also, for students with no background in physics, there is a lot of groundwork to do before they can put this all together, but it's still important to use all the materials documented here to tie this to the greater scheme of things: they're modeling model rockets, but it's essential to show them the modeling of the real deal to exemplify the importance of this kind of modeling the world.

Bill of Materials

Water rockets are pretty cheap investment; we need water bottles ; size can vary; couple of $. Water; negligible price. Few stabilizing parts on it;probably carton or paper or similar ; very cheap too. Launcher could be bit more expensive; we need air pump and a pad. I guess the whole cost can fit into; dozens of dollars. Really sorry-not good with pricing in USA - but can search online.

Evaluation

CRS Questions

   *  Question 1: 

   * Which one of the following elements does not affect pathway of flight of the rocket? 

  1. Rocket Thrust
  2. Earth Gravity
  3. Rocket Mass
  4. Force by air movement (i.e. Wind) 

   * Question 2 

   * What do you require to measure/track the altitude of the rocket flight? 

  1. A Person at very high position and binoculars
  2. Good Math and estimation skills in cooperation with already-known-height of the nearby tree
  3. Another person besides you to track the angle reached
  4. A measuring device attached on to the rocket 

   * Q2 might be a bit confusing

Second question offers bit longer answers which from 1 point of view sound ridiculous but from another have applicable ideas. Even though some of them might even produce an approximate correct answer - only one is true.(C)

   * Question 3 

   * Which one the below listed is the dependent variable from the equations related to the flight of the rocket? 

  1. Mass
  2. Velocity
  3. Time
  4. Gravity 

Quiz Questions

• A question.

<Aerodynamics> Metadata

The goal of this unit is to introduce students to the details of moving object through air. In my opinion; people always wanted to know how air affects movement of flying object, how far can something fly, and how gravity affects it all.(at least I did). And it all goes through lot of fun with nothing less than water rockets; proven idea for exploring further science behind rocket flight.

Scheduling

Could be closer to structural modeling; but really does not matter- but probably when weather is better and calmer for lab activity outside- so later part of semester.

Concepts and Techniques

The idea of the unit is pretty straight forward; math, physics and estimation skills are main tool in this topic;and with combined labs it will try to demonstrate the idea of rocket model and its simplified model compared to real rocket. Full science application.

General Education Alignment

• Analytical Reasoning Requirement
  • Abstract Reasoning - From the [Catalog Description] Courses qualifying for credit in Abstract Reasoning typically share these characteristics:
    • They focus substantially on properties of classes of abstract models and operations that apply to them.
      • Analysis of this unit's support or not for this item. Does not apply; this unit is purely quantitative.
    • They provide experience in generalizing from specific instances to appropriate classes of abstract models.
      • Analysis of this unit's support or not for this item. Again it does not apply/support.
    • They provide experience in solving concrete problems by a process of abstraction and manipulation at the abstract level. Typically this experience is provided by word problems which require students to formalize real-world problems in abstract terms, to solve them with techniques that apply at that abstract level, and to convert the solutions back into concrete results.
      • Analysis of this unit's support or not for this item. Does not support it; it could but we have different focus.
  • Quantitative Reasoning - From the [Catalog Description] General Education courses in Quantitative Reasoning foster students' abilities to generate, interpret and evaluate quantitative information. In particular, Quantitative Reasoning courses help students develop abilities in such areas as:
    • Using and interpreting formulas, graphs and tables.
      • Analysis of this unit's support or not for this item. It does support this it; as I described above- the unit requires and will develop math, and science skills so it will also include certain number of formulas, graphs and certainly tables.
    • Representing mathematical ideas symbolically, graphically, numerically and verbally.
      • Analysis of this unit's support or not for this item. It does support this it; as I described above- the unit requires and will develop math, and science skills so it will also include certain number of formulas, graphs and tables which will also have their symbolical, graphical and numerical representations.
    • Using mathematical and statistical ideas to solve problems in a variety of contexts.
      • Analysis of this unit's support or not for this item. Still not sure how big will variety be but what is sure that math and statistical ideas will be used to solve problems.
    • Using simple models such as linear dependence, exponential growth or decay, or normal distribution.
      • Analysis of this unit's support or not for this item. Probably we will meet linear dependence in this unit; following the graphs of the various bottle pressure bottles, etc.
    • Understanding basic statistical ideas such as averages, variability and probability.
      • Analysis of this unit's support or not for this item. It will certainly contain all the above mentioned ideas cause we are talking about predicting events, simulating models and analyzing predicted events.
    • Making estimates and checking the reasonableness of answers.
      • Analysis of this unit's support or not for this item. "Yes, estimation and confirmation are important part of the unit.
    • Recognizing the limitations of mathematical and statistical methods.
      • Analysis of this unit's support or not for this item. Even if numbers of paper have power to predict and evaluate something; real life experiment can always show more than numbers.
• Scientific Inquiry Requirement - From the [Catalog Description] Scientific inquiry:
  • Develops students' understanding of the natural world.
    • Analysis of this unit's support or not for this item. The students are making a model which is going to resist gravity, but also be affected by natural happenings like air drag, and possible weather features.
  • Strengthens students' knowledge of the scientific way of knowing — the use of systematic observation and experimentation to develop theories and test hypotheses.
    • Analysis of this unit's support or not for this item. The students will have chance to pre-use computer simulators and software which are going to possibly give them ideas to develop their own ideas about the model and predictions of occurrences throughout the lab.
  • Emphasizes and provides first-hand experience with both theoretical analysis and the collection of empirical data.
    • Analysis of this unit's support or not for this item. The lab will be the main medium of experiencing the real model evolving; and cause of that will be collection of data and students analysis of ones.

Scaffolded Learning

The 3steps involve the following.

1. Talking about some of the general principles of aerodynamics and how the forces involve effect the flight of various aircraft.

2. Modeling the flight of a rocket or airplane based on lecture content.

3. Actually building a model airplane or rocket and then launching it based on conclusions reached in the simulations based on lecture content.

Inquiry Based Learning

According to previous template; same as :Scientific inquiry above.