]Time Lapse Photo Study of 2-Liter Water Rocket
The following photos make an interesting study of a typical launch of a 2 liter bottle rocket. The first photo starts with pulling the string at blast off. Each photo was taken at 1/30 second intervals. The 8th frame is the last photo showing the rocket in view. The remaining photos are shown to study the water vapor clouds.
There is a 24 foot tall measurement pole to help estimate the height of the rocket in each photo,. The pole is colored back and silver in 12" sections.
To figure how many "miles per hour" the rocket is traveling between any to frames, just estimate the distance traveled in INCHES between any two contigious frames and multiply by 1.7. To calculate the speed between non-contigious frames, estimate the INCHES traveled and multiply by 1.7, and divide by the number of 1/30 sec intervals between first and last frame.
This example shows the water rocket to be traveling at 112 mph.
This is photo of actual rocket used in the time lapse photos above.