The Justice Guru Rocket

Overview:

For our physics project, our goal was to build a soda bottle rocket ship with an egg in a capsule that would end without suffering any harm while getting a parachute to deploy. Below, we have detailed out process, launch data, results, and some pictures to document our project.

Materials:

Materials were divided into three segments based on where we put them on the rocket.

Main body:

- 1 2-liter bottle, 3 3D printed fins

Egg capsule:

- 1 top half of a 2-liter bottle, 1 cone folded from paper, many cotton balls, 1 small plastic water bottle cut to hold egg, duct tape, masking tape, baby powder, newspaper
Parachute: 

- Garbage bag, duct tape (for reinforcing corners), string, paperclip

Procedure:
1. Gather materials listed above
2. 3D print 3 fins (Or create your own out of cardboard)
3. Glue the fins on to a whole soda bottle. Add masking tape for extra insurance
4. Take the second bottle and cut the last ⅓ of it off, it will house the capsule for the egg
5. With string and a garbage bag that is cut in a square, fold the bag into eighths as shown in the video below. Cut along the line, add strings and duct tape. This will be the parachute.
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrWMO4ewJg0
6. Put an egg in water bottle with cotton balls (or any material that serves as good padding). Put smaller water bottle in top capsule and surround it with newspaper. Attach it to the main body.

*Before attaching the pieces should look like this:

Model of our fix for the parachute:

 

Results:
Our rocket performed adequately. In our first test, we achieved a height of over 75 feet without the parachute deploying leading to the egg cracking. In our second test, our rocket only reached 66 feet but our parachute did deploy and our egg was safe. From our first trial to our second trial, we decided to sacrifice some height in order to make the parachute more easily deploy. With our first attempt, we had an equipment malfunction in that there was too much force and friction being pressed onto the parachute and it ended up not deploying. During our second run, we loosened up the pressure on the parachute with the way we placed the parachute in the rocket and lowered the friction using baby powder. User error was in play with the way the rocket was assembled with each launch. If the parachute was crumpled in a different way, that could have affected our results. Also, the amount of water being placed in the bottle and how the rocket was set up and the launch was affected by human error. The weather may have affected our results as the wind could have increased air resistance.

Videos for rocket:

Two angles of the same launch.

Diagrams/Pictures:

Data from LoggerPro Curve fit	English Units	SI units
Maximum Height	66 ft	20.11 m
Thrust & downward acceleration	Thrust acc: 385.9 ft / sec ^ 2 Down acc: -.317 ft / sec ^ 2	Thrust acc: 117.6 m / sec ^ 2 Down Acc: 0.0966 m / sec ^ 2
Maximum Velocity	103.1 ft/sec	31.44 m / sec
Gravity	32.2 ft / sec^2	9.81 m / sec^2
Full mass of rocket	2.864 kg	1.299 kg

Calculations:

1. Calculate upwards acceleration and height of rocket at apogee

The camera moved 14% from the time the rocket was launched to the time that the rocket reached its apex. Therefore, we multiplied all distances and velocities from LoggerPro by .86 to get a more precise value. Read about this more in the conclusion.

2) Calculate downwards acceleration

3)  Calculate force of thrust

4)     Free Body Diagram

a. FBD of liftoff

b. FBD of rocket just starting to fall down and FBD of rocket falling with parachute

Conclusion
Overall, the rocket fared very well and passed our expectations. When we constructed our rocket, the hot glue melted a small part of the rocket body, so one of the wings was a little out of place. To make our rocket better, I would have made the wings bigger and added another one. In all of our runs, the rocket would go fairly high but would wobble at its apex because the wings would not stabilize the bottle. Some of the other groups had four big cardboard fins that made their ship go high. If the wings are too light, then it won’t stabilize, but if it is too heavy, it will not go high enough. The cardboard seems to serve as a good medium. The size of the bottle was good because the top was slightly bigger than the base, so it detached easily. Some other groups had very slim bottles, but it would not detach. I would not change the size or shape of the bottle. The weather was somewhat ideal because there was not much wind. However, the air was very dense and wet. If the weather was more dry the rocket would be marginally better. It is like a baseball; on a warm day a ball will carry more, however, it will drop faster on a wet day. The Giants play near the water, and because of the dense air near the ocean, the ball is known to not carry very well. With the air less dense, the rocket, like a baseball, will go further and higher. Another issue we had was the capsule detaching. The bottle was loose, but the capsule would detach late and the parachute would not come out. We used baby powder to lessen the friction between the capsule and the main rocket body. Although we got the capsule to come out faster, the parachute did not come out during the test runs. I tried to put the parachute in the capsule in a way that would make the parachute come out with the downwards pull from the apex. However, there was not nearly enough pull to make this happen. The only way it would have worked that way would have been if there were holes to push the air through so the parachute would deploy. In order to fix the problem, we used a paperclip. The paperclip was attached to a string on the capsule and then the other side hooked on to the body. The idea was to have the end of the clip loosely attached to the main body. The tug would create separation. As the capsule pulled on the body, the parachute was pulled out early enough to allow air to enter under the parachute to open it. In the end, we did have errors that affected our calculations. From the time that the rocket took off to the time that the rocket reached its vertex, the camera shifted position by about 14%. This shift affected our calculations for height, as it caused LoggerPro to overestimate the upward velocity of the rocket by 14%. Accounting for this change, we should multiply the calculated height by .86, resulting in 71.1 feet, a value much closer to our actual launch height than calculated. The remaining few feet over can be attributed to the fact that our rocket did not go straight up. It went sideways a few feet, causing our numbers to be inaccurate. On the way down, the camera moved a lot. This greatly affected our data on LoggerPro, meaning that our downwards acceleration data above is wrong. If we were to do this lab again, we would make sure that our camera is propped up so that human error will not cause it to move and mess up the frame.

Who did what:

Grant: Results, Fins

Zack: Calculations, parachute

Noah: Materials and Procedure, FBD, Egg capsule

Mason: Materials, Main body

Eco Bell Lab

For one of the last biology blog entries of the year, we were told to take pictures of several types of species or anything else, falling into different categories. Here are pictures of the 12 things, all taken at Bellarmine as well as scientific classification.

First is a producer. Grass. It gets all of its energy from sunlight and nothing from other creatures. I believe that the specific species of grass is Fowl Mannagrass, also known as Glyceria striata. This species lives on California's coast and the Sierra Nevada mountains.

Second is a primary consumer. Chicken, or Gallus gallus domesticus. These birds get all of their energy from plants and seeds, which are producers. These birds are native to east Asia, specifically Vietnam, India, and China, but live all over the world now.

Third is a secondary consumer. The grizzly bear or Ursus arctos fits this description. Even though it also eats plants, a big part of the grizzly bear's diet is eating herbivores. While you may think that because this bear is big and seem threatening, it must eat carnivores, but much of its diet comes from herbivores like bison, sheep, and fish. This species lives in western Canada and Alaska. This picture here is from the California state flag on the flag pole. Hopefully it counts.

Fourth is a tertiary consumer, or an animal that can eat carnivores. A crow. I believe that the one I found is an American crow, or Corvus brachyrhynchos. This species can be found in the USA and southern Canada. These crows eat other carnivores, meaning they are tertiary consumers.

Fifth is a decomposer, an organism that breaks down and eats dead stuff. A housefly or Musca domestica is a great example of this. This species lives all over the world and can eat dead things and break them up.

Sixth is a herbivore, a creature that eats only plants. It's like a primary consumer, but has a different name. A blue-and-yellow macaw or Ara ararauna is a great example of this. These animals feed off of seeds and roots, and not any meat. Macaws live in the Amazon rainforest, mostly in Brazil. This one was on the Miller and Levine Biology book. Hopefully it counts.

Seventh is a carnivore, a creature that eats meat. A dog fits this description. This is Mr. Wong's dog, that looks like a labrador retriever, or Canis familiaris. These dogs originated in Newfoundland in Canada, but live everywhere now. Raw meat is the best food for these dogs as they only ate meat before domesticated.

Eighth is an omnivore, a creature that eats plants and meat. A human or Homo sapiens is a great example of this, as our diet is very big and includes both plants (ex. apple) and meat (ex. burgers). Humans are native to east Africa, but now live almost everywhere on earth. This is Mr. Wong.

Ninth is a threatened species. Even though this is also the next one for being endangered, the western honey bee, or Apis mellifera is also threatened. Since endangered is a subcategory in threatened, any endangered species is threatened, including bees. These bees live almost everywhere but the Saharan desert, over water, and the poles.

Tenth is an endangered species. A western honey bee, or Apis mellifera is a great example of this. These bees were added to the endangered species list within the last year and live almost everywhere but the Saharan desert, over water, and the poles.

Eleventh is a non-native species. A jalapeno or Capsicum annuum represents this well. Native to Mexico, the jalapeno is grown in the Bellarmine garden. These peppers are known for being spicy and are grown in Central and South America.

Last is a pollution source. In class, you said that this was okay even though it isn't a plant, so here is a car. It seems to be a Subaru Crosstrek Hybrid. Made in Japan, these cars exist almost everywhere where people who need to move.

Goldfish Respiration Lab

While in science, I did a goldfish respiration lab, measuring the effect that temperature has on a goldfish's breathing rates. To do this, my group put a goldfish in a small cup, measured the water temperature with a thermometer, and counted how many times the fish opened and closed its operculum (gill covers) over a five minute period. We did this several times, changing the temperature of the water each trial. Due to thermometer problems, we started late and couldn't finish the lab, so we only have three of the desired five readings. We also have no pictures, because of time restraints Here is a chart of our readings, with the works of other groups and our average.

As you can see from this data, goldfish breathe more when in hotter water. Due to their cold-bloodedness, goldfish must get all heat from the outside. This leads to fish functioning better in hotter temperatures. I assume that goldfish have a maximum temperature for breathing, but it is above any temperature on this chart. 

Analysis answers:

1. The goldfish have an increased respiration rate with increased temperature. As previously stated, the higher the temperature (up to a maximum point), the higher the number of operculum openings. For every trial from every fish, a high temperature has a high respiration rate.

2. Differences in the fish might have affected breathing rate. For example, the fish may have been different species. You asked that we only bring in goldfish, but I heard other people talking about bringing other fish species in. A different species might react differently to different temperatures and would change the data. Also, respiration rate varies in fish of the same species. The fish that I tested breathed more in 10-14 degree C water than fish 4 did in 26-30 degree water. The fish that I tested was higher (on average) than the other fish. This just shows how fish in the same species can respire at different rates. 

3. My fish was above average. On all three trials, my fish breathed more than the average for the 4 fish in the test. The average reading is more accurate because it is a bigger sample space, and is less likely to have great errors.

4. Scientists usually look at the average because it is a bigger sample space. Since my fish was the fastest breather, it may have had some mutation to make it do that. If the test was done with just one fish, the mutation would have been in 100% of the sample space, even though only that fish has it. When looking at the average, the mutation would only account for 25% of the sample space, and the average fish would be at a much higher percentage. Averaging many fish out is much better because it shows a greater group of the population. I averaged in this experiment mostly because I was told to, but also because averaging is more precise.

5. Same experiment, but put the fish under different amounts of light and check its breathing.

6. It was correct. My prediction was only based off of hearing that fish would breathe more under hotter water, and that was true.

7. Fish are cold blooded. This means that they get more energy and can respond more when their surrounding environment is close to its desired temperature. When further away from the desired temperature, fish are less likely to be active because much of their energy is saved for a warmer time.

Fish Pond Genetics

In bio class today, we experimented with a fish pond and the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium.

We started out with a fish pond and then were allowed to change any factor we wanted, related to the fish and see the changes' effects on the color of the fish.
For example, I wanted to make all of the fish red, so I made the RR become the fittest allele, made a red color most likely for fish migrating into the pond, and changed the ratio of mutations from an r allele to an R allele very high.

The pond followed a Hardy- Weinburg equilibrium when all five of these situations were true about the pond:
1) The population size must be big.
2) Mutations must be low.
3) Migration should not occur in or out of the specified area.
4) Mating is random.
5) Genotypes cannot affect a species' fitness.

When I put all of these conditions in the pond, the population and percentage of R/r alleles stayed constant. When I changed one (or all) of these conditions, the graph varied, going up and down.
In the pictures below, the first picture shows a generally constant situation. Is fluctuates, but very slightly. The second picture shows what happens to the allele percentages when the Hardy-Weinburg equilibrium is messed with or when the genes are changed by a greater force (me in this case).

Alternate Geological TImeline

Here is the extra credit alternate geological timeline. I put all the events on a 12-hour clock and saw where they would match up on the clock. 12:00 noon represents today on the clock, and 11:59 PM represents the beginning of time, 4.6 billion years ago. Here are the different eras shown on the clock.

As seen from the picture, the Cenozoic Era (yellow) takes up 10 minutes, the Mesozoic Era (green) takes up 27 minutes, the Paleozoic Era (orange) takes up 45 minutes, and the Precambrian era (blue) takes up the remaining time. It is a huge majority of the Earth's history. I saw that on the original timeline as well, but I never realized how much of a majority it really was. 

For the original timeline, we had to write several events on a paper. Here are three pictures, one telling which events correspond to which letter, one showing the events of the last three eras, and one showing all of the events

.

The first picture lists the events and times. Those times are how long ago they would be on a clock. For example, Mr. Wong's birthday would be 0.000558 seconds ago on the clock. You can see in the second picture that most of the events (11/12) are in the three most recent eras. Only one event, single-celled organisms appearing, happened in the Precambrian era. This shows how slowly major evolution and change occurred, then how fast it ramped up.

Geological Timeline

From this activity, I learned about the timing of many prehistorical events. I always considered events like the dinosaur extinction to be an incredibly long time ago. While it still is a long time, according to my standards, the distance between today and their extinction would only be 6.5 centimeters out of the total 450 centimeters. All in all, it's not that long ago when you compare it to the total history of the earth. The last 650 million-ish years on the timeline was filled with events and important details leading to today (like Mr. Wong's birthday). Before that, the timeline would have long spots of barely anything, as change was much slower and much less intricate back then. All of this timeline (which I believe is correct) relies on Darwin's predictions of evolution. Charles Darwin talked about how species gradually changed to become what they are now, and will continue to change indefinitely. The timeline shows examples of Darwin's teachings, as it shows the appearances of creatures like mammals, modern humans, and cells. Darwin talked about creatures appearing and changing, and that is exactly what the timeline shows. The timeline relies on and supports Darwin's theory.

Here are some pictures. The first is me with a part of the timeline, and the second is a picture of the most recent 650 million-ish years. The major eras beginning there are in bold. The third picture is the beginning of the Precambrian era, which started with the earth 4.6 billion years ago.

Jelly Beans

Extra credit jelly beans!!!!!!!!!!!!!