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Description

Carry out the water rockets experiment outside.

Resources

Empty 2L plastic bottles
Mortar tubes/ whatever you use to hold the bottles while pumping
Football pumps
Corks
Pump adaptors
Water
Measuring jug

If at night, glow sticks or LED armbands to fix to the bottles.

Instructions

At simplest, just let them pump up the bottles to launch and explain that what's pushing the rocket forward is the force caused by the water accelerating out of the back- if you push something one way, you are pushed the other way.

To go more complicated and respect the "Investigate ways of improving how far it can travel" bit of the badge, put a different amount of water in each time. Do it systematically- since it's probably a 2l bottle put 200ml in, then 400, then 800 and so on and either use a tape measure or just put something on the ground to mark the impact point each time, and see how full the bottle has to be for it to go the furthest.

If this is being done at night, fasten glow sticks or LED armbands (probably environmentally better) to the bottle so you can see it fly and where it lands.

Tags

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Badge Links

• Scientist - Rocket