After my recent finds, like the de Laval nozzle, and my findings with the experimentation, I think my next step would be to make a working balloon powered prototype with my new knowledge.

Well, I have found something in the way of research. It is called the de Laval nozzle, which is a special nozzle that I believe is supposed to create more thrust or something. Basically it is a plain ol tube, except that it's pinched in the center. Apparently this maximizes the kinetic energy created by the escaping gasses, which I guess is a good thing. The gist of this post is that this thing called the de Laval nozzle will make my rocket go zoom...!

Well, because I've had simply no luck with my research, I just decided to skip that part and go right into the building part. I tried making a sort of balloon propelled prototype which consisted of three balloons, a piece of paper attatching these three balloons at the top and a piece of duct tape with a face on it which I named Square Man to be the passenger. The first time I put my balloon jetpack to the test, it spun around in the air, and then plopped to the ground. It was a failure, so I reconfigured and... same results. And the same results all the other times. But, however big a failure it was, I did find a few things out from it.
First, is that it is a good idea to have a nozzle, especially if  you are using balloons. If you just let a balloon go, the end will flop all about, letting out air wherever. But if you use a nozzle, it keeps the end stiff and only let's out air in one place, helping with the stability. A nozzle also helps by letting out a consistent amount of air, which, although not particularly important now, will help if I ever do in fact attempt to make a real working one.
The second part that I found is that it is a good idea to keep a low center of gravity. At one point I discovered a nozzle used to fill up water balloons. So, I put this on upside down on a balloon, blew it up, and let it go. Now, the nozzle wasn't very heavy, but it was fairly heavy in balloon terms. Although the balloon went straight down, it went straight down upright. This is vital if I am to make a real jet pack because the last thing wanted is to be upside down or sideways when you're trying to go upright.
So, although it's a small start, it's something. Perhaps further experimenting will provide more data which I could use.

I have just about given up. There is simply nothing on jetpacks, or rockets or whatever. I went to the library looked around, and found nothing. I asked the librarian if they might have something along the lines of what I needed and found nothing. I've looked online, looked at NASA's website. No one had anything! This of course frustrates me. I think I may need to stteer my research in a different direction. Perhaps I should contact some experts or something. It's worth a shot I suppose.

There is someone else I found that I may be able to contact. A sort of friend of mine has a brother who is an astronaut. I shall attempt to contact him, for maybe he will no some secret government plot to create a jetpack. Or maybe at the very least, he could provide some sort of insight into rockets, or jetpacks, or something in that sort of area.

Ok, so I think I have found someone I can contact for expert help. He's my old science teacher, and he's super knowledgeable in the area of rockets. So... let's hope he responds, and is able to assist me.

So, I have been trying to research my topic of jetpacks. Unfortunately there has not been a whole lot of stuff. Really all there is is a bunch of broad statements saying that rockets are move do to action reaction. So... Right now,  I'm thinking that the library may be the way to go. I think books can have some good specific things that I need. That or maybe find someway to narrow my search on the internet. So... Yeah.

So last night I read some stuff about jetpacks. Apparently, there was something in the 60's called the rocket belt. It used hydrogen Peroxide and silver to create a reaction or something. I'm not 100% clear on how it worked, but it provided some insight. The book also said that there wasn't much use for the jetpack. The army has no use for it, and the government doesn't want it to be a mode of transportation. Sure, drunk drivers are bad, but what about drunk people with a bunch of high- powered rockets strapped to their back? Not good. So, this has put a little bit of a damper on my hopes of commercializing the jetpack, but we'll see. I still want to fly, so I'll keep working for that.

So I finished Outliers. It was pretty interesting... for about 4 chapters, then it just seemed to repeat the same thing over and over. It felt kind of like beating a dead horse. That said, there were some thing that I learned, and that I found were interesting.

Yesterday, something happened to me that has refreshed my drive to create a jetpack. As I was walking home from the bus stop, I came across two squirrels chasing each other. One chased the other into the middle of the street, and then a car came and ran it over. Right in front of my eyes. This event struck me like thar car struck the squirrel.  I wish to put an end to the tyranny of cars over the helpless woodland animals. I think jetpacks wood help that. The only thing that we would have to look out for is flying squirrels, though I doubt that be too much of an issue. So... yeah. I now have a refreshed incentive to make the jetpack.

So I read this book Outliers, well a majority of the book and now I'm supposed to blog about it. Well one thing it said is that once someone has done 10000 hours of something, they are an expert at it. So I guess that means I'm an expert at TV. It also said that in order to be really successful, you need both skill AND  luck. I know I have skill, I just hope I'm lucky. I hope I'm lucky  enough to be lucky.

Well I don't know much about jetpacks. I know that someone is currently making them for 100,000 bucks a pop. I know how a rocket works. I know... well I think that's it. Although what I do know, is that I want one, and I will work hard to get it. So... we'll see.

Ok, so I got a couple of books on jet packs: " Jetpack Dreams", and "Where's my jetpack?". I'm not sure these will really help me in the actual construction of my jetpack, but it may at least give me a bit of a backround.

Okey doke. So throughout the course of this school year I will be studying, researching, and hopefully (probably not) creating a jet pack.

This is my first blog.