October Sky
Chapter 13: The Rocket Book
With just over a few days, the boys recieve one of the things they have looked for through the entire expierence with rockets. Miss Riley got them a book that shows more about how to build a rocket. She has tried to persued the boys to enter the science fair over and over. After school being closed to anyone outside walking distance and sleds being taken to school, Sonny is on his own to return to Coalwood. Throughout his journey, the weather begins to get to him and he comes to a halt by a woman and is invited into her house. She tells Sonny he must tell his father that she helped him but requested for him to not tell his mother. After telling his father what happened, Sonny realized two things about the woman. The woman sells moonshine and other things to men, and the other is that when is father was a kid he pulled her out of a fire that killed everyone else in her family. His father does not see that what he did was exactly couragous and blames himself for not seeing any of the other family members.
Chapter 15: The State Troopers
The teacher agrees to teach the calculus class to the students if the pricipal agrees, but the superintendent does not allow the class to be taught. He doesn't see a need for the class in a mining town high school. When things seem to be changing, Sonny and Quentin get called to the principal's office. Two state troopers had shown up because they suspected one of the boy's rockets started a fire and burned down some homes. Just before they were going to be arrested teachers pointed out a few issues with their logic. The key issue was the place where the fire started, ten miles away from the boy's launching location. The pricipal is then convinced enough to influence for their class to be taught. The class was rasied a spot to six instead of five in order for all the boy's in the club to be able to be in the class. Seven kids signed up to be in the class therefore they cut the kid with the lowest grade which happened to be Sonny. He took the cut pretty well considering he was the reason the class was even put in the school. At the end of the chapter Sonny finds the book his father once used to teach himself the math he needed to know to run the mine.
Chapter 14: The Pillar Explosion
This chapter begins with the boys slowly understanding the rocket book and covers ideas like the De Laval nozzles. They also become persuaded that to truly understand the book, you need to know calculus, but it is not offered as a class at their school. Another aspect is that there is a pillar explosion in the mine. There were no injuries in the accident, but Sonny comprehends what that means now than what he did before he went down into the mine. His fathers role with leading the rescue crew into the dangerous passages even though it wasn't necessary for him to shows his character once again. After a few more very successful launches they have reached their limit on what they can do with their current fuel.
