Altitude Table for a Single Axis Tracker

So you’re out flying rockets, and you bought one of those gun-looking trackers (or maybe you made one like this one from NASA or the one from Mike Westerfield’s Make: Rockets) and you want to find out how high your rocket went. You can either do a bunch of math (which honestly isn’t too hard. You can see how in How High Did My Rocket Fly? How to Track Your Rocket’s Altitude), but unless you’re really into calculus, you’re only going to get into the ballpark. You still need to know what engineers call standard deviation.

Basic math is often based on ideal situations. But because we live in an imperfect world, we need to take into account into account certain predetermined errors. Maybe you’re a little off for your baseline measurement, or maybe there is a slight incline or decline between you and your launch pad, or maybe you were a little off with your tracker measurement. A standard deviation takes into account some of those possible errors and with some more complex math, we now have our margin of error. 

Unless you just want to do some calculus, a much simpler method is to take your measurements (distance from the launchpad and angle measured with your tracker), and reference a chart like to one below (you’re welcome).

The left column has the angle that you measure with your tracker and the top row is how far you were from the launchpad when you took your tracker measurement. Find the place on the table where the two intersect to find how high your rocket went (in feet or meters – just pick one and stick with it) and the standard deviation in the error of the altitude.

ex. If I stood 300 feet from the launchpad and took a measurement of 30 degrees with my tracker, than my rocket flew around 173 ft with a standard deviation of +/-23 ft.

Diving Deeper into Model Rocketry

If you find yourself getting seriously into rocketry and you want to learn more, check out Make: Rockets by Mike Westerfield. Make is an awesome resource for so many things STEM-related and this book will give you everything you need to know about low-powered rocketry including compressed air and water rockets. 

This book is no-joke and is about 1½ inches thick. This book has become my rocket bible and is a great resource (and no, Make did not ask me to say any of this).