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Homemade Rocket

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Homemade Rocket



Equipment:
  • Empty potato chip can with lid
  • Supplies to decorate the potato chip can
  • White film canister - the kind where the lid fits down inside. Ask for one where you get film developed.
  • Alka-Seltzer (or generic) tablet
  • Warm water
  • Safety Goggles
  • Optional: Pie tin and hot glue gun



Instructions:

NOTE: This activity requires adult supervision!

Decorate your potato chip can as your 'rocket launcher'.

Optional: Place the lid on the bottom of the can, and hot glue the can to the pie plate.

Break the Alka Seltzer piece into three or four pieces.

Fill the film canister half full of warm water.

Put on safety goggles. (We used the same ones that we use when we weed-eat.

Drop the Alka Seltzer piece into the film canister, put on the lid, and drop - lid side down - into the 'launcher'.

Stand back, and your rocket should launch with a bang!


Almost as amazing as the rocket is the fact that I got this picture on the second try!


Why does this work?

Have you ever heard of Sir Isaac Newton's laws of motion? Sir Isaac was a really curious guy, who spent a lot of his time watching and wondering about why things work the way they do. He came up with three 'laws' about motion. You can read about all three by clicking the link above.

I'm going to tell you the third law, since it explains why our rocket works. The third law says, "For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction." In other words, when you do something one way, something else happens back the other way. For example, if you step forward off a boat onto the dock one way, the boat goes backwards the other way.

When you add Alka-Seltzer to water, it makes gas.You know, plop, plop, fizz, fizz. Try it with one of the leftover tablets, and you'll see the little bubbles of gas come out. Like air in a balloon, gas takes up space. The gas builds up quickly in the film can, and soon there isn't enough room for it. So the gas pushes on the lid, and it pops off.

As the lid pops off, the gas that has built up in the can comes rushing out - and down one way. So your rocket shoots up the other way.

By the way, the rockets at NASA go up using the same law of motion. See, it doesn't take a rocket scientist!

Read more about Sir Isaac Newton's Laws of Motion with Mechanical Harry. Kids love building the cool inventions that are all through the book. An excerpt: "Hi! My name is Harry Newton. My ancestor Isaac Newton reckoned that every action has an equal and opposite reaction. What he meant was that when my breakfast arrives, it hits the lever, that strikes that match, that lights the fuse, that fires the cannon, that knocks over the jug, that pours the milk onto my cornflakes." Intrigued? Then head on over to the library, or order from Amazon.com today!




DISCLAIMER: Although the activities in this web-site are regarded as low hazard, author and publisher expressly disclaim all liability for any occurrence, including, but not limited to, damage, injury or death which might arise as consequences of any activities listed or described here. Therefore, you assume all the liability and participate in these activities at your own risk!

Copyright ©2003 A. L. Dash & Sons LLC