Princeton University Physics Department Readymade Rocket Science Detailed Project Description Detailed Technical Information Synopsis: We seek to address growing student dissatisfaction with the laboratory portion of introductory physics courses. The basic idea is to replace the traditional series of short (three-hour) sessions with an ongoing project that covers the entire semester, or a significant fraction thereof. Students fashion simple water rockets from two-liter PET-plastic soda bottles and other commonly available items. The rockets are launched using a system based on pressurized air from a bicycle pump. Each rocket is instrumented with a self-contained electronic accelerometer, which acquires a record of acceleration versus time throughout an approximately seven-second flight. After the flight, the accelerometer is recovered and the data is uploaded for subsequent analysis on personal computers running MATLAB or a similar plotting and analysis package. Students first learn to use their accelerometers in a set of ground based experiments, before conducting a series of launches. Please send comments, questions, and suggestions to:  marlow@princeton.edu   Return to Marlow's Home Page