AERODYNAMICS

It doesn’t take a Rocket  Scientist…

1/2?AV²C_D=Drag

Week One

Jessie Bennion

Ashley Dahlke

Caleb Gates

Heather Welch

Nancy Thoman

Amber Pollock

Marcos Catchpole

Amelia Wilcox

Chris Laursen

Jennifer Daniel

Week Two

Tommy Scherbel

Lucas Grant

Samantha Robbins

Lori Sandberg

Geetha Srhidran

Bridget Schabron

Greg Griffith

Nathan Van Velson

David Stamp

Andrew Priddis

Setting up for tests with the wind tunnel. It took two different computers and a laser to measure all of the different factors.

Tommy and Andrew ready for testing next to the wind tunnel.

Lori ready to mark how far back the rocket gets blown.

Geetha shining the laser for a precise measurement.

Even the teachers’ (darn Spurs fans) minds were being challenged as Seth helped Amber and Amelia.

With aerodynamics you can’t forget the intense thinking it requires.  If you look closely you can see the smoke.

Amelia and Jennifer begin the final preparations before the trek to the launch pad.

This is a box of rockets, stickers, paint and all the other decorations we used to test our artistic abilities on our rockets.

Seth and Heather go through the final, extremely crucial calculation prior to blast off.

Throughout the week we calculated the position, velocity, and acceleration of our rockets along with calculating the bell curve of two fellow classmates who had to run 600 meters (which was wrong!!!!).  On the second day we worked with Newton’s laws <the law of inertia: for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction>.  On a few days during the week the “teachers” took the class to a local coffee shop where we got brownies, tea, and coffee among other things.  When we were back in the classroom, we were given the privilege to go see two wind tunnels, a hexapod, and an octapod.  Finally after four days of class, various experiments, and numerous calculations we got to launch our rockets.  And with very “exact” measurement methods we were able to calculate their height.  Amazing.  All those that had participated  in both the first and second week would have to say that this class was an absolute blast.