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This instructable will teach you how to build a simple, ultra light rocket from household items (and of course a rocket engine)
Here's the supply list:
- 1 tube of superglue
- 1 roll of tinfoil
- 1 straw big enough to fit around your launch rod
- 1 deck of playing cards that you don't mind parting with
- 1 C rocket engine
- several rocket engine detonators + plugs
- 1 electronic detonator (and necessary cables)
WARNING: This is totally dangerous. I didn't die, but you might. It is NOT MY FAULT if you hurt yourself following these instructions.
Here's the supply list:
- 1 tube of superglue
- 1 roll of tinfoil
- 1 straw big enough to fit around your launch rod
- 1 deck of playing cards that you don't mind parting with
- 1 C rocket engine
- several rocket engine detonators + plugs
- 1 electronic detonator (and necessary cables)
WARNING: This is totally dangerous. I didn't die, but you might. It is NOT MY FAULT if you hurt yourself following these instructions.
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Signing UpStep 1Building Yourself Some Fins
The fins themselves are pretty simple, the difficult part is positioning them evenly around the rocket. To make a fin, first you'll need to fold a playing card in half hamburger style. Take your superglue and seal the folded halves together, like a sandwich. Glue is going to ooze out the sides and get all over your fingers, but just suck it up and take it like a man. Make two of these sandwiches and let the glue completely dry.
Now you can need to do a little bit of measuring, but nothing too complicated. Take one of the folded cards and put it perpendicular to the other, forming an L. Mark off the edge and cut it away so you're left with one square-ish shape. Repeat with the other folded card and, if you've done everything correctly thus far you should be left with two pseudo-squares.
Take these faux-squares and cut diagonally across from the curved corner to the corner directly opposite. You should now have four fin shapes, congratulations. Now onto the difficult part, attaching them.
Now you can need to do a little bit of measuring, but nothing too complicated. Take one of the folded cards and put it perpendicular to the other, forming an L. Mark off the edge and cut it away so you're left with one square-ish shape. Repeat with the other folded card and, if you've done everything correctly thus far you should be left with two pseudo-squares.
Take these faux-squares and cut diagonally across from the curved corner to the corner directly opposite. You should now have four fin shapes, congratulations. Now onto the difficult part, attaching them.
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I loved the instructable, and it reminded me of rocket I made last summer. By made I mean that I found as many engines as I could, chad staged them, and stuck fins on 'em. Attached is a picture. It flew. Mostly.
I saw somebody launch a multi-stage one of these! Just loosely tape a booster engine (something like a B6-0) to a regular engine (say, a B6-5), put a cone-shaped thing on top, and tape the fins to the upper engine, but so that they extend down past the lower one a bit. WHen he launched it, it went up for a ways, we saw the second stage ignite, and then… it just disappeared into the sky.
the main rockets use ignition to produce thrust.
The MMU's (manned-maneuvering units) use small amounts of compressed air to move the astronaut in certain directions.
The physics behind rockets is that "mass" be it air or other molecules. are exhausted from the nozzle. "Equal and opposite reaction"
The only problem with compressed air is that to achieve a sufficient mass flow rate the volume and pressure would be HUGE!!
Please take a physics class.
The comment you responded to is 2 years old, and the information you posted was already covered in other comments. You posted 3 comments on this thread, and I would say that none of them followed the 'be nice' policy. People are here to embrace knowledge and to help each other, please don't talk down to them.
I know that it can be hard to humanize some random post on the internet, but remember that there is a person on the other end.
There are two equal forces - one force is pushing the rocket one way, and the other force is pushing the gas the other way.
Imagine a mouse trap in space that is loaded with a marble - so that when the mouse trap triggers the marble goes flying. What will happen is that the marble goes one way and the mouse trap goes the opposite direction. There doesn't need to be a third thing (air) to 'push against'.
Since the marble has less mass than the mouse trap, and since the forces are equal, it means that the acceleration/velocity will be different for the two items - remember that F = mA (Force = mass * acceleration) and K = mV (Kinetic energy = mass * velocity). If the marble is half the mass, it will be moving twice as fast.
This is exactly what happens when you expel compressed gas or use a rocket - the tiny particles of gas have very small mass, but they are moving incredibly fast. This gives an appreciable amount of acceleration to the rocket. This is why you always have to take into account that a rocket loses mass as it accelerates.
- several rocket engine detonators + plugs
- 1 electronic detonator (and necessary cables)
Way too complicated all you need is a 5 cent birthday cake sparkler. Set the rocket down on it so the tip is in the engine, light the bottom of the stuff with a BBQ lighter, stand back. Lit off a lot of rockets this way and never had a problem.