Does A Rockets Fin Type Affect Its Travel?

Problem

I will find out if a model rockets fins would affect its travel.

Hypothesis

I believe that the model rocket with the fins that are rectangular would work the best because many rockets from NASA use this kind of fin for their rockets and many rockets with these kinds of fins usually work very well.

Procedure

• • Get the materials to create a water / air propelled model rocket

  • Create the model rocket and cut out different fins

  • Launch the rockets in a safe area

• Record each of the rockets time in the air using a stopwatch

Conclusion

In conclusion the triangular shaped fins worked the best for the rocket test. My hypothesis was incorrect because I said that the rectangular shaped fins would work the best but they did not. I believe that my test was accurate but also in some places inaccurate because I used the same materials for the launch and the fins. Although, the bottles were different types which could have made a difference. It would have also helped if the test happened on a better day with better weather. One way my project could have been better if the test was done during a different part of the year where the days aren’t cold or when there's not any bad weather. Also if the same types of bottles were used it would have helped very much. My project shows that if one thing changes on something then it can cause a major difference on something.

Abstract

For my project I wanted to test if a rocket’s fin would affect how fast and far it travels. I used three types of fins for my project L shaped fins, triangle fins, and rectangular fins. I predicted that the rectangular fins would make the rocket travel the fastest and farthest. My hypothesis was supported by research on NASA’s website, the fins that I predicted to do the best on it’s test closely resemble the shape of NASA’s model rocket’s fins.

I had three rockets and three different types of fins. I also had borrowed a rocket launcher from my teacher. All forms were signed and I had permission from parents. My tests were done in an open field where no one else was present, except for me and an adult. The rockets were all put onto the rocket launcher correctly and air pressure was applied. There were some malfunctions. All of the rockets were tested and all data was gathered using a stopwatch to time how long each rocket was in the air.

The data shows that the best fin to use for a rocket would be the the triangular fin with an average of 2.87 seconds in the air. The L-shaped fin had an average of 2.4 and the rectangular fin had an average of 2.53. This shows that the best fin was the triangular fin and the worst was the L-shaped fin.

This results of this study proves my hypothesis to be wrong. I said that the aerodynamic and best fin for a rocket would be the rectangular fin, but the triangular fin came out to be victorious having a .34 second lead. The reason my hypothesis could have been wrong could have been from the different types of bottles used and the weather of the day that the tests were made. A way to fix these problems could be to use all of the same types of bottles and find the best days of the week to test on. A way I could improve my test could be to use actual model rockets and better resources. Also, I could have made more fin types and did more tests on each type of fin. The accuracy of this test was that all resources were made the same way. Although to improve accuracy all bottles could have been the same or only use one bottle but multiple fin types. From my conclusions I have learned that there will always be mistakes when trying to test something and also that it can be fun while very exhausting, but in the end I am glad that picked a fun and exciting topic to research.

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