Number of Participants / Approximate Time
Up to 2 / 45 minutes

The Competition
1. Students will bring two pop bottle rockets to the tournament. Students should place their school name on each rocket.
2. The body of the rocket must consist of one or more plastic 2-liter soda bottles. Alterations should be made to the rocket to help it stay aloft. No commercially finished or model products may be used. No metal parts will be allowed on the rocket. No materials will be allowed that can compromise the integrity of the plastic bottles (e.g., hot glues or super glues). Sanding or other abrasion of the plastic used for the pressurized body of the rocket is not allowable. No more than one bottle can be pressurized at any time. Each rocket must have a straw about 2 inches long attached vertically to the bottle in order to keep the rocket launch vertical. The fully assembled rocket must not exceed 22 inches tall and 11 inches wide, not including the parachute. Students should place their school name on each rocket.
3. The participants will add the amount of water they desire into their rocket before each launch. To aid in consistency, the water level line shall be clearly marked on the rocket prior to check-in. The temperature of the water will be ambient and will be taken from a source provided by the judges. Only plain tap water may be put inside the bottle. Carbonated water, soap, oil, and the like are not allowed.
4. All energy imparted to the rocket must originate from the water/air pressure combination provided by the pump. No other source of energy will be permitted to aid or assist any part of the rocket.
5. All rockets will be launched a pressure of 75 psi using the launch pad provided by the judges. All pressurization of rockets shall be done by judges (in pre-tournament practices, adults should pressurize the rockets). The participants will not be allowed to hold their rocket during pressurization. The participants will control the launch mechanism and will launch their rockets. Once the rocket has been pressurized it must be launched.
6. Timing of the rocket starts with the launch and stops when the main 2-liter bottle touches down, or when the rocket disappears from the judges sight, or when the rocket impacts or gets entangled in an object (tree).
7. All rockets will be impounded at the start of the Olympiad day. No physical alterations may be made to the rocket once it has been impounded (but, fine tune adjustments will be permitted). Rockets wil be transferred from the impounding location to the launch site by the participants at a designated time.

Scoring
The best time aloft of the two rocket launches will be recorded. The winning rocket will be determined by the greatest time aloft (recorded to the nearest hundredth of a second). Ties will be broken by greatest time aloft of the team's other rocket.