The Buckets by Greg Cravens for July 26, 2011

Houston we have a problem

Aaaaand this one’s for Benjamin. Sorry ‘bout the rocket, Ben. Don’t pack that ’chute quite so tight next time.

Having flown model rockets many times, I can attest to the fact that most of them are too light to have that high a terminal velocity.

Well Greg, your first mistake is assuming men (even the young ones) will EVER read the instructions when they KNOW they know what they are doing…lol. My daughter and I watched her boyfriend and my son install a ceiling fan. They both KNEW what they were doing and couldn’t figure out why it was not working. After a long discussion of how the ceiling fan MUST be a lemon, my daughter picked up the instructions (still safely encased in the plastic pouch) and proceeded to switch two wires….voila working fan. I have soooooo many more examples of our Men at Work. ;-)

Try again next time little boy!

Hahahahahahaha.

Terminal velocity is a combination of mass, surface area and air density. Most model rockets have sufficient surface area compared to their mass to fall at a rate that keeps them from pranging (fuel consumption also changes the center of mass/center of pressure relationship). Furthermore, most rockets built from kits are made so that the nose cone separates from the body (to which it is still connected by the shock cord) so that even if the ejection charge fails or the parachute is missing or does not deploy it will tumble and fall relatively harmlessly.The only rocket that I ever launched that crashed like that was an old one that I modified in the following way: I glued the nose cone securely to the body; I poured a couple ounces of gunpowder in; I glued the engine in place. It went up about thirty feet, turned nose-down during the coasting period, then accelerated straight down when the gunpowder went off.Needless to say, that was not an officially sanctioned launch.

Rocket Day must have been a blast! All I got to do was use up my mom’s baking soda and vinegar with a plastic rocket I got in a box of cereal. Best part was seeing if I could get it to go from the pantry to the the other side of the kitchen. The worst part was mom making me clean up the mess.

Maybe he just forgot the graphite or baby powder. Side note: there’s nothing like an understanding of real physics to destroy your appreciation of cartoon physics.