Friday, June 8, 2012

Soda Bottle Rocket

For our end of year homeschool group party,  each family was suppose to bring something they had done during the year and share it with the group.  My boys studied space this year in science.    Instead of doing the normal solar system display,  I thought we could do something a little different.  We made a rocket to blast into space.  Well, obviously not into outer space,  but way up the air.  Hopefully??

We first had to drink a 2L soda.  That was the best part for my kids I think,  as they so rarely get soda.
Then,  we designed our rocket.
Not too bad, huh?  We simply took poster board and hot glued it around the bottle.  Then, we rolled the cone top around and cut out the fins and glued them on.  Add a little paint and design,  then you're done with that part.

Now comes the fun part!!  Fill the soda bottle about 1/4 to 1/2 full with water (the less water,  the higher it goes).  You need a cork with a small hole drilled through to place in the opening.  Do not turn it over until you have the bicycle pump needle in place and are ready to pump in the air.  It took us a couple tries to realize the less water,  the more fun.  Usually, it's the other way around!!

So,  I had hoped to post a video of the blast off,  but it won't upload for some reason.  So,  a few more pics.

Just a little note:  whoever is pumping the air in the bottle might get wet:)  We had a couple mishaps,  but after we figured it out,  we blasted the rocket off at least 5 times.  It was a lot of fun.

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