We used small wooden wedges to prop our rocket on an angle, which allowed us to determine how it flew. We started with a 35 degree angle. We used a timer to time how long the rocket was in the air. After launching our rocket, we used a measurer to determine how far our rocket flew. The rocket was in the air for 3.84 seconds and flew 42 meters in the horizontal direction. We used these measurements to calculate initial velocity using our horizontal component and cosine equation. It is important to remember that Initial velocity at all launch angles remains the same. Our work for this step can be seen below.
After we found initial velocity, we were asked to launch the rocket on another angle (25 degrees) and predict where it would land. In order to do this, we drew an initial velocity diagram and then separated it in to components (step D). With the initial vertical velocity, we were able to determine how long the rocket would be in the air for (step A). After we found time, we used our horizontal displacement formula to determine how far the rocket would travel (step B). We then tested our hypotheses and our rocket landed 1.8 meters past our desired landing spot. With this data, we calculated our percent error (step C).
