I am a high school teacher attempting to give my students a project for designing a rocket powered by the chemical reaction between acetic acid and baking soda to produce CO2 gas.
I have done some simple calculations based on stoichiometric amounts of vinegar and acetic to produce a stoichiometric amount of CO2. I then have taken the moles of gas produced and solved for the pressure produced using the ideal gas law equation.
The calculations are attached in the Excel file.
Now I come to the troubling part. The students will be using a 2-L soda bottle as their rocket.
As the physics part of the project I would like to the students to calculate many things:
Fthrust and work done by the gas.
What are the simplest equations to use to calculate Fthrust and Work ?
I've attempted to make several equations which give me some very non-sensible results.
I have done some simple calculations based on stoichiometric amounts of vinegar and acetic to produce a stoichiometric amount of CO2. I then have taken the moles of gas produced and solved for the pressure produced using the ideal gas law equation.
The calculations are attached in the Excel file.
Now I come to the troubling part. The students will be using a 2-L soda bottle as their rocket.
As the physics part of the project I would like to the students to calculate many things:
Fthrust and work done by the gas.
What are the simplest equations to use to calculate Fthrust and Work ?
I've attempted to make several equations which give me some very non-sensible results.