|
Making It – Guy Fires a
Rocket
Programme Outline
Up in his bedroom, Guy designs a rocket on his laptop computer.
It's in three sections: a tail fin, a middle section and a nose
cone. Later, he mixes epoxy glue to fix cardboard rings to a thick
cardboard tube. He adds fins and a nose cone. Out in the garden, he
uses an electric sander to smooth down the middle section of the
rocket. He hangs all the rocket parts on garden canes so that he
can spray paint them.
Guy fixes a parachute to one section of the rocket. The
parachute is folded up and stored away inside the tube.
On a big, empty playing-field, Guy sets up the rocket for
launch. Inside the nose cone, he puts a device for measuring how
high the rocket goes. He attaches the rocket motor, stands back at
a safe distance and begins the countdown. 'Three, two, one …
blast off!'
The rocket streaks away into the summer sky. Guy watches as it
reaches its highest point, then falls back to Earth, slowed by the
parachute. The rocket is broken into sections by the landing, but
the measuring device is safe. Guy connects it to his laptop. A
graph shows the path, or trajectory, of the rocket's flight. It
reached a height of 250m. How high will Guy's next rocket
reach?
|
