Display values:
This animation is of a model rocket of mass 0.034 kg, plus the mass of the fuel. The default values are set such that the rocket at first barely lifts off (not realistic for a model rocket without gyroscope controlled stearing). The rocket burns fuel at a rate of 0.013 kg/s, with the thrust always directed parallel to the rocket velocity. The radius of the rocket is 0.012 m (used to calculate the drag). The acceleration of gravity is set to a constant value of 9.8 m/s2. The drag is proportional to the square of the velocity. The units in the animation and displays are MKS (Length-unit-meters, kilograms, and seconds). You may need to increase the length unit to fit the trajectory into the display. Click on a point in the animation to display the x and y coordinates in your length units. Each pixel is one length unit. Note that the animation may not give sensible results if the exhaust velocity (which determines the thrust) is set too low or the fuel mass is set too high.
By Robert Johnson, using the Physlet Animator and dataGraph classes from Wolfgang Christian and Mario Belloni.