MOTOR
TALK
All right, now comes the
tricky part, explaining what all the numbers and letters on the motor mean.
If you look on the side of an engine, you'll see a letter followed by some
numbers. What the heck does all that mean!? Well, for example, you have
a C6-7 engine......
Total Impulse
The letter C indicates the
total impulse or power the engine produces. Total impulse is measured in
Newton-seconds, NS. One newton second is the total impulse produced by
one Newton of thrust for a duration of one second.
Average Thrust
The 6 is the average thrust
in newtons. This number tells you the average thrust of the engine during
thrust phase. The acual thrust varies during engine burn. The propellant
may burn quickly giving a higher average thrust or burn slowly for a lower
average thrust. Higher thrust is better for large rockets and lower is
better for small, light rockets.
Time Delay
This number is the number
of seconds between the end of the thrust phase and the activation of the
ejection charge.The delay allows the rocket to coast to its apogee(peak
altitude)before the recovery system is deployed.
Now that wasn't so bad,
was it?
