| In class this week, Andrew decided to include all of us in a class lab. The first part to our lab, we learned a bit about the periodic table. Our main goal was to learn how to read a periodic table and how to build a rocket engine. With explosions or combustion, oxygen atoms are involved. This is what happens when you combine elements. On a periodic table, you can see how the column shows how many electrons are in the outer shell. You can see the atomic mass, how many electrons, protons, and neutrons there are, and the number. We also learned about reactions, and related them to rockets. Our rockets contained 65% Nitrate and 35% sorbitol sugar. Andrew melted down the mixture, and poured it into little pcp pipe sections. He then topped it off with a bit of concrete, so that when it dries you could drill a hole into it. He also poured black powder into them as we were getting our rockets ready to launch. He put a string in them so that the fire would slowly work its way up to the fuel. The rockets didn't fly in the air or anything, but they did produce a really loud psssst noise and let out a lot of smoke. It was really cool to watch. I was really interested in this rocket lab. It made me wish that I was doing the rocket project. I learned a lot about how simple rockets work, and I'd like to actually make one and launch one someday in this class. |