Altitude and Flight Forces

Using PVC pipe and aquarium tubing, build an altitude tracker. Pupils then use the altitude tracker, along with a tangent table, to calculate the altitude of a launched rocket using the included data collection sheet.

How do rockets fly? Teams design, build, and launch a rocket made from a two-liter bottle to explore forces on a rocket such as Newton's Laws of Motion.  During the design phase, young engineers draw a diagram of their rocket and include...

What are the basics for building a rocket out of a two-liter bottle? The procedures outline the basics to create an air- and water-powered bottle rocket. Prior to launching the rockets, teams perform safety checks to ensure their designs...

Teams construct rockets to carry out predetermined missions using different rocket-building techniques. Groups develop the mission specifications and rocket design plans for approval prior to construction. Teams launch similar missions...

Newton's Laws get the rocket to work, but do they serve any other functions? A six-page resource classifies rockets by the type of propellant they use. It then describes applications of Newton's Laws of Motion, both in the ability to...

High schoolers learn the basic concepts about airplane flight. They learn the reason jetliner wings are swept back and why jet engines have replaced propellers in high-speed flight.

Students examine force and conduct activities that model parachutes and helicopters.  In this airplanes lesson students identify the forces that make airplanes fly higher and land. 

Students use the FoilSim computer simulation program, and demonstrate an understanding of the lift variables by explaining their graphical representations. They demonstrate an understanding of forces and motion.

Students discuss the application of frames of reference to an airplane flying with a constant velocity v through the air.

High schoolers use FoilSim to demonstrate that the graphic analysis of the airflow around one object can be used to hypothesize airflow graphs for objects as they are elongated from a sphere to an airfoil shape.