Rocket Derby (4-26-07)

Instead of a pinewood derby, our cub scouts held a Rocket Derby this year. From a parent's point of view, I liked the rocket derby much better. Pretty much, all the boys made their rockets at den meeting and then decorated them at home. It was mostly an issue of luck rather than engineering when it came to launching, and I thought it was much cooler to see these shoot in the air (and come crashing down) than it was to see the cars race. ANYWAY, I probably also liked the rocket derby because Sheridan's rocket ended up with the longest flight time of the 30 or so launched that night. He was pretty thrilled to "win." I also happened to see a list of other awards, and saw that they were going to give Sheridan "Best Design," but since he won "Longest Flight," (6.55 seconds) they gave best design to another boy. It's hard to tell, but his rocket is designed to look like a package ("This Side Up," "Airmail," "Caution: Contents Flamable," and "Fragile" are stamped or stuck on the tube) being sent to the star Rigel.