README

This is a (sort of) collision theroy simulations made to illustrate the point of what happens when you change the concentration of sugar in model rocket fuel.

I say that it is a sort of collision theory simulation because it does not acutally show the behaviour of particles on the molecular level. However, the program is sucessful in illustrating the effects of changing the concentration of one variable (and it's effects on the other variable).

Essentially what is suppose to happen is that the window shows a portion of what is happening inside a part of the rocket engine. For example, you can increase of decrease the amount of sugar in the ratio. As you increase the amount of sugar you decrease the probability of having any other particles in your window. This is why when you set it to have the most amount of sugar you can only see sugar particles in the window.

Collisions are measured by sugar particles knocking into anything that is not a sugar particle. This is to make the effect of change in sugar concentration reflect our data.

In the code for the simulation, the variable "kno" is used to describe the oxidizing agent. This is because it is the most commonly used oxidizing agent used in hobbiest model rocket fuel.

The oxidizing agent is in green The sugar is in pink The corn syrup is in yellow The water is in blue

CONTROLS

Use the up and down arrow keys to increase or decrease the amount of sugar. Hold down "f" on your keyboard to increase the speed of the particles. Press "q" on your keyboard to exit the program.

Interesting sites to learn about collision theory and rates of reactions:

http://www.chemguide.co.uk/physical/basicrates/introduction.html http://www.chm.davidson.edu/vce/kinetics/RateOfReaction.html http://chemistry.about.com/od/stoichiometry/a/reactionrate.htm