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I often look up at the clouds and wonder how high they are. Meterologists have ranging equipment but it's expensive and not particualrly portable.
For the curious home meteorologist, I propose a type of firework rocket which leaves a smoke trail. Externally, it is identical to a normal firework.
You stick the rocket in a piece of tube as normal and light it.
The difference is that the propellant has coloured smoke composition mixed in, and it's pressed in layers. Each layer burns for a calculated time, based on the velocity of the rocket at that point in its flight (they accelerate as they get higher, it's a second-order differential equation). This means that the rocket's smoke trail changes colour (red/white/blue/yellow/green) at 50 or 100 metre intervals as it climbs.
When the rocket reaches the cloud (and disappears), all you do is count the "blocks" of smoke and multiply the total by X where X is the "block height" for that type of rocket.
Then you will need to move somewhere else quite quicky, because an angry person who has just had a spent rocket come hurtling out of the sky onto their property can clearly see the neat, coloured smoke trail leading back to the place it was launched from.
Laser Range Finder
http://www.nightvis...om/range_finder.htm
I think you'll find this more economical in the long term. Good to 5,000 feet (I dunno, how high do clouds go?). Not that shooting colored rockets into the sky isn't a worthwhile pasttime. [DrCurry, Aug 22 2002, last modified Oct 21 2004]
A purpose-built version.
http://www.qualimet...l/cloud_height.html
"measures cloud height up to 25,000 feet by calculating the return time of laser light pulses" [angel, Aug 23 2002, last modified Oct 21 2004]
Puff Matrix Printer referenc
http://www.halfbake..._20Weather_20Report
Mentioned in an annotation. [half, Aug 26 2002, last modified Oct 05 2004]
Virtual fireworks
http://www1.jawink....ava/jhanabi2e_b.htm
turn up the sound and do your own [FarmerJohn, Aug 26 2002, last modified Oct 21 2004]
Short name, e.g., Bob's Coffee
Destination URL.
E.g., http://www.coffee.com/
Description (displayed with the short name and URL.)
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Yet *another* device to tape a cat to... |
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("..and, I almost thought I saw a black speck falling from the cloud going 'meeeeeyoooowwwww........', but I think that was just my imagination..") |
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It was just my imagination |
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you'd have to compensate for the weight of the cat (and probably some drag if it was a long hair) otherwise your measurements will be off. |
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An extension to pneumatic hamster tubes...I like it, I like it... |
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Oh, say can you see... a rotund Englishman, walking down the street with bulging pockets. |
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Simply by chance a bystander asks him how high the cloud base might be today. |
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He plunges his meaty fists into his pockets and amidst a shower of tools, weapons, knick-knacks and balls of string and sealing wax emerges a fist clutching a small, brightly-coloured rocket. |
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Rummaging again in a pocket on the lower right calf of his trousers he produces an empty soft drink (soda) bottle. |
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He sets up the rocket in the bottle, holding it vertical with a small ball of plasticine (from behind his ear, as formable explosives are kept safe, taped to his inside thigh with duct tape). |
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Lighting the fuse, he stands back and the now substantial crowd of onlookers Ooh!s and Ahh!s as the rocket streaks skyward in a plume of smoke. |
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Some quick calculations, a word to the enquirer and a hastily scribbled note of apology to the occupants of a news helicopter with a scorch mark on its canopy and he scurries around, stuffing his precious belongings in pockets and making good his escape ahead of the imminent arrival of the Gendarmerie. |
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UnaBubba, your description is absolutley uncanny .... have you been following me around ? Even down to the combat pants with bulging pockets ....... I can't believe you have worked out all that just by deduction .... |
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You passed through Lewes at some point in your life. You are marked. |
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That fails to explain your apparent familiarity with his inner thigh. |
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Nice one 8th, I'd also like a rainbow rocket that makes a pretty parabola in parallel colors. Very funny Una; you had me in more stitches. |
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Angel: That's between me & UnaBubba, Ok ? |
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FarmerJohn: The parabola with serial colours is easy. Parallel smoke trails is more difficult but I wil consider the request. |
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Instead of one rocket which makes the whole rainbow, how about multiple rockets (each a different color) mounted together side-by-side. Maybe leave 12 inch gaps between rockets so the colors don't mix as much. The trick is to get the red rocket to have just slightly more thrust than the purple rocket so that the cluster follows a graceful arc around the z axis while under thrust. Meanwhile, stabilizing fins will attempt to constrain the path of the rocket to the x-y plane. |
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The hardest part of the whole thing is getting the thrusts balanced *just right* to make a predictable arc. From what I understand about solid fuel rockets, burn rates are tough (impossible?) to regulate. They tend to vary during the burn, and are affected by the age and storage conditions of the fuel. Even two identical rockets produced at the same time and stored in identical conditions can exhibit significant (for this application, at least) differences in burn profiles. |
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If you plan on sending a rocket up a few miles, you might want to check with the FAA first. |
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Nah! Just use news helicopters as aiming points. |
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How about luanching 7 at the same time at slightly different angles and creating a rainbow. Go to the other side of the rainbow and wala, say hello to the pot-o-gold! |
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This is starting to sound like a job for an onboard altimeter and the "Puff Matrix Printer" (color version). |
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Got to love that variant. At least it's not "viola." |
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Get a bunch of them, turn them sideways (horizontal) and shoot them off when there is turbulence at a parachuting dropzone (while the parachutists are still at sufficient height not to be hit of course). Mix parrafin wax in with the propellant so the smoke stays around a little longer, a skywriters trick, and as the skydivers decend for final approach, they can see where the eddys are and thus avoid them. |
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Adapt for night use with copper sulfate mixed in at intervals such that the rocket flame shoots out blue jets every 50 feet. |
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Nice idea. Shouldn't be too difficult to do I suppose. I mean, it's not rocket science. Oh, it is. Sorry. |
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