Which nation made the first rockets?
Which rockets first flew between two different nations? (It was in World War II
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V-2_rocket
Rocket v. jet –
Both create motion by expelling high-speed gases. Rockets have all the propellant inside, while jets need air to combine with their combustible fuel
Rockets are effective in generating high speed but are very inefficient in converting fuel energy into kinetic energy (energy of motion) in the “payload”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJvzzHAFFuA – what’s wrong with this video? Two things, for sure
Biggest rocket until Starship
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CcXap3qet3g
What ignites the rocket propellant? Look at
https://blogs.nasa.gov/J2X/tag/ignition/#:~:text=The%20massive%20F%2D1%20engine,some%20mixture%20of%20the%20two. and scroll down to “hypergol”
How fast does a rocket have to go to escape Earth’s gravity?
https://letstalkscience.ca/educational-resources/stem-explained/escape-velocity
How fast can a rocket go? Before the first rockets in space existed, the Russian schoolteacher Tsiolkovsky derived the rocket equation. This also explains why all rockets that reach even low-Earth orbit have two or more stage
First, Tsiolkosvsky https://www.nasa.gov/history/sputnik/kon.html
Then, https://beatinggravity.com/how-tos/how-to-use-the-ideal-rocket-equation/
I also wrote it up- https://www.lcaoutreach.org/habitability-of-planets-2/appendix-the-rocket-equation-in-free-space/
Some famous rockets BOOK AT THE LCA
X-15: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_X-15
Examine a model rocket, carefully – why is the nozzle flaring out?
See also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocket_engine_nozzle
How high can our model rockets go? It depends on the rocket design (especially mass) and the engine used. Our study with students in middle-school science, 7 October 2016 – we’ll look at images, observations of model rocket flights, and calculations, shortly
Rocket noise –
https://science-technology-society.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/284.-The-greatest-noise.mp3
What kinds of propellants have been used or considered for rockets? Some have been pretty crazy –
Ignition-An-Informal-History-of-Liquid-Rocket-Propellants-by-John-Drury-Clark_-Isaac-Asimov-_
You can move around between pages in this document- alas, only by keeping pushing on the upo or down arrows. Here are some interesting pages in this document:
Page 19 – Russian schoolteacher Konstanin Tsiolkovsky foretells space travel and how fast rockets can go
Page 29 – in World War II the Germans created big war rockets… which the US and Russia learned to make from them
Page 31 – “Hypergolic” fuels that ignite on their own; no need for poor and unreliable electrical spark starters or the like
Page 37 – The start of the famous GALCIT laboratory at Caltech, and some very dangerous propellants
Page 44 – More dangerous propellants
Page 48 – And a really terrible-smelling propellant
Page 141 – Exotic rocket fuels with boron
Page 148 – Is it safe? What about chlorine pentafluoride?
Page 151 – Hypertoxic beryllium!
Page 201 – Even hypertoxic mercury!