![]() ![]() The day they took it down, part of my childhood died.” – James Kust “That rocket was THE reason I went to Carson Park. “That rocket was awesome! Remember thinking we could fly to the moon in that thing!” – Katie Meyer It was the best spot to see everyone else running around, but once they found us, we had to bail down the slide quickly or be trapped at the top.” – John Kaiser “I remember climbing to the top with my best friend while playing tag-like games during YMCA camp. I remember the paint was flaky and dry.” – Emma O’Brien “It seemed like the tallest slide in the world, and there were always kids far braver than I pushing past me on the stairs to get to the top. I was devastated when they took it down.” – Danika Brown All the warnings from my parents to ‘Stay away from that death trap’ just made me want to play on it that much more. I spent the first year of college in Eau Claire trying to locate it, only to find out it was gone. “I used to visit Eau Claire as a child and the rocket was one of my clearest memories. We’d hoard it and not let any boys or younger girls up past the second level during our fake club meetings.” – Jesse Lyn Petke “There was one at Riverview, too! I loved climbing up to the top. Except on really hot days that thing burned.” – Genny Felix I loved the big giant angled climbing slide thing that used to be at Carson Park, too. As soon as we got to Carson Park we’d race to the rocket and push and shove to be the first one to the top. So in 1994 to 1995, when it came time to re-grade and reestablish that site to accommodate events, the old metal monster was humbly retired. “We gave it to Max Phillips – a metal salvage/recycling place,” said Johnson. “Individuals, schools, churches were asking for it, but morally, we couldn’t sell it. If it’s not good enough for the public, why pass it on if it’d pose the same risks?” At the same time, he acknowledges, “Of all the pieces of equipment, the rocket had the most memories associated with it … a lot of the play value went away with the new guidelines. “It wasn’t a play structure anymore … just a monument to our own youth.” The safety violations were now numerous: the vertical climber offered no “protection” around its openings, and you could drop down to the ground from the towering top level. ![]() At the same time, the city was concerned it wasn’t being used for its intended purposes (or age group). Increasing the launch angle (pointing the rocket up higher before launch) will make the rocket go higher.The “mid-to-late 80s” saw the first step in the rocket slide’s eventual demise, as the lower slide was taken out due to a structural problem. “The Consumer Products Safety Commission was developing guidelines that initially kicked evaluations of playgrounds into gear,” said Johnson of the era. The remaining slide, high and mighty as it was, was clearly doomed: its rails were a thin three inches compared to the now-standard six. “There was no entrance platform for the slide,” added Johnson. “No rail to hold onto. It was rusted out where it was interfaced with the platform … you could wiggle it.” So they closed off the opening with more vertical steel bars, and it stood as a bare rocket (on a spot of grass isolated from the rest of the playground equipment) for another two years, but the community sensed its fate. “I’d get calls periodically saying, ‘don’t take the rocket down!’ ” said Johnson. Fins can stabilize the flight of your rocket, and more fuel can shoot the rocket farther or higher. If you pinch the rocket so it becomes only a little wider than the paperclip, gases can no longer easily escape and the rocket launches. This prevents pressure from building up, and thus there is no launch. When the cylinder of the rocket is not pinched, there is plenty of room for gases to escape. ![]() When the gases cannot escape fast enough, pressure builds up inside the cylinder of your rocket and this pressure eventually pushes the rocket off. When the matchstick tip heats, it ignites and creates gases. The first trial with the paperclip launcher probably caused a lot of promising smoke but no launch, but the second trial was likely successful. The rocket was probably successfully launched using the box launcher. Can your results be reproduced? Can you explain your results? ![]()
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