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Make: Rockets
book

Make: Rockets

by Mike Westerfield
August 2014
Beginner to intermediate
520 pages
22h 49m
English
Make: Community
Content preview from Make: Rockets

Chapter 7. Rocket Stability

Remember the first balloon flight from Chapter 1? The balloon flipped crazily in the air, using most of its energy to twirl itself around. Imagine what that would be like with a model rocket. As soon as it left the launch rod, an unstable rocket would start to fly like the balloon, careening around in random directions, perhaps running into a spectator or flopping onto the ground with the motor still burning. It’s a good thing we build models from lightweight, collapsible materials and test them for stability before flying, because an unstable rocket can be pretty scary. Fortunately, rocket instability is easy to avoid once you understand what makes a rocket stable.

We’re going to look at several ways to see if a rocket ...

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Publisher Resources

ISBN: 9781457186370Errata