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Description

Firing bottle rockets with meths

Resources

String, Straws, plastic bottles, tape, meths, hole making device

Instructions

1. Setup a string line going some distance 30feet or so, putting a straw onto each string before securing.
2. Take a small pop bottle and drill/bore a hole about 5mm in the lid.
3. Put ~5ml of meths in the bottle and with a spare lid or thumb over the hole shake vigorously until there is a good mix of vapour in the bottle, now attach lid with hole in and tape onto the straw.
4. Stand back and light the mixture by putting a flame to the hole in the lid

All being well the flame will go inside the bottle expand rapidly and propel the bottle along the string.

This is good fun but you need to be careful on the amount of meths for the size of bottle, if you put too much in then the remaining meths tends to get blasted out the back of the bottle, it didn’t catch fire but was unpleasant if you got your leg covered in meths.

Experiment with different size holes in the lid.

If it doesn’t burn well put the bottle in some warm water to vaporise the meths better.

Tags

• creative
• explosion
• fire
• science

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