At the beginning of class, we went over the Action and Reaction Pairs homework from the night before. For the rest of the period, each table had to do a balloon lab about Newton's 3rd Law that compared the balloon to a rocket. For the first two parts of the lab, the table had to blow up a balloon and stick it to a piece of straw that was threaded on the long string of yarn, which was held up tightly between two people, and let go of the balloon to compare which way the air went and which way the balloon went. The first part asked for the string to be held up straight horizontally, then the next part asked the balloon to be held up at a 45 degree angle and then straight up. The last part of the lab required two balloons to be inside a hollow styrofoam cup and from the way the balloons were positioned, if you let one go, that one moves along the string until it runs out of air, but the other balloon has to wait for the first one to leave before it can move along the string as well. The lab and follow-up questions were due at the end of the period and our homework was a page about all three of Newton's Laws. Something funny that happened in class today was when Mr. Kreider kept walking back and forth across the hallway and saw us doing the lab. Then he went into the classroom and told Mrs. Coats-Haan that all we don't work in physics and all we do is play. Because he was walking back and forth so much, I told him that he was being a hypocrite because he wasn't doing any work. Mr. Kreider agreed.
Question of the day: Why do rockets have stages?
I don't completely understand, but I think it's because the parts of the rocket are stuck tightly together that when it's time for lift-off and when the air/flames have to be released, each part has to take turns releasing the energy as only one can release energy at a time.
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