Report Copyright Infringement View in OSM UK

Description

Simple but great fun, water powered rocket demonstrating Newton's third law of motion and works well for Beavers, Cubs or Scouts

Resources

A pop bottle (the 1 litre tonic/bitter lemon type work well)
A wine cork that fits snuggly in to the neck of your chosen bottle
A needle valve (as you'd use to inflate a ball)
A pump (ideally a floor standing stirrup type)

Optionally - a launch pad, a ground quiver works, equally a garden fork you can stick in the ground and use the handle, but you can just hold it. Better still, a pioneering project one week to create a launch pad for the next...

Instructions

1. Cut the wine cork so it's just shorter than the needle valve and drill a hole through it so the valve passes through but fits tight.

2. Pour some water into the bottle (about 1/3 to 1/2 full works best, too much and the weight of the 'fuel' is too great, not enough and it lacks the fuel to get much height, but that's part of the experiment of course)

3. Push the cork (now with the needle valve through it and pump attached) into the neck of the bottle, and set it in the "launch pad" (pointing up/away from everyone of course!).

4. Pump air in to the bottle and wait for it.... When enough pressure builds it forces the water down out the bottom, resulting in an equal and opposite force pushing the rocket up.

You can also get the young people to decorate their rocket, add a cone, fins, etc. and mark them for style, height and flight (some spin beautifully, some end over end!)

In terms of how long it runs, they'll all want a turn at launching their rocket, you can make it more scientific for older participants getting them to experiment to determine the best amount of 'fuel' to use, they can decorate their rocket or adorn it with fins, etc and they could pioneer a launch pad, so if you have an outdoor space nearby it can be completed in as little as 30 minutes, or fill several hours.

Videos of our cubs running the activity last night:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Rh6hS3wSl5mIP4Mx13BAgHqYxmyR0Vsq/view?usp=drive_link
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1uZViruWtUL0RemvwFB0AQ1h6kBu34jJx/view?usp=drive_link

Tags

(none)

Badge Links

• Scientist - Rocket