SCIENCE!!

[pyat]

Frame analysis of the firing has also provided me with some rough data on the velocity of the Mousehold I probe.






The camera was filming at 14 frames per second. In between frames 2 and 3, the rocket has cleared the height of the launch tower, about 75 cm.

So, 0.75 m in 1/14 of a second means 10.5 m/s, or 630 metres a minute, or 37,800 metres an hour, or 37.8 kmph (23.4 mph). Or, to put it another way, roughly 0.09% of escape velocity.

I'm going to need about a thousand more engines! Right? It works that way, right? More seriously, I think my digital camera can be set for 30 fps. I'll try that for the next launch.

Comments

[zorinlynx.livejournal.com]

I want to get one of those new consumer video cameras that can supposedly film at 300+ frames per second.

Basically *true* slow motion.

If I get one of those I'll probably go nuts recording all sorts of things and watching them in slow-mo. :)

[pyat.livejournal.com]

I think I would, too. Wow.

[shurhaian.livejournal.com]

Your math is flawed. It assumes the rocket was moving at a constant speed; in fact it was likely accelerating, and continued doing so well into the air.

At some point it would've reached an equilibrium - there's not THAT much power in those tiny solid-fuel engines - but it'd probably be going at least a bit faster than it was so close to the ground.

Besides - using a single datum as reference? Shame on you. :)

[/GEEK]

[pyat.livejournal.com]

*nods* I need to zoom out a fair bit or track it up somehow. The burst in a 1/4 A rocket is only something like 1 second in duration.

However, we can assume it was travelling about 37 kmph when it left the gantry, I think.

[shurhaian.livejournal.com]

I still think it would've been going faster than that, for the simple reason that the first frame showed it motionless. For it to be going at only what the math above showed, it would've had to accelerate to that speed INSTANTLY.

Rather than treat this as an estimate of speed, treat it as something you know it was exceeding. :)