Comments on: Pop Rockets

By: Aurora

Aurora — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 21:37:09 +0000

You need something that generates a lot of gas quickly… and tuns doesn’t do that. Baking soda and vinegar do, though.

By: Lydia Fancher

Lydia Fancher — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 21:12:34 +0000

can I use tums?

By: Lydia Fancher

Lydia Fancher — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 17:53:49 +0000

how about three tablets!!! :3

By: Carolyn Penkert

Carolyn Penkert — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 07:40:41 +0000

We LOVED this Experiment! My kids Beg me to buy more Alka-Seltzer so they can watch the canister shoot way up in the sky. Out of all the Experiments, this is their favorite so far. Thanks Aurora!

By: Aurora

Aurora — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 03:55:45 +0000

You’ll be able to do this soon – we did it with 200 kids in Alaska in January… I am sure you can find a way.

By: Corii Williams

Corii Williams — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 00:59:46 +0000

I forgot to add my name to my email. I am 9 and my name is Kade.

By: Corii Williams

Corii Williams — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 00:56:08 +0000

If it were not winter, then I would be able to do this.
BLASTED WINTER!!!!!!!!
Of course I want to do this in January/2012…….sigh

By: aimbee7

aimbee7 — Sun, 31 Jul 2011 03:11:37 +0000

Hi! I’m Abby! (10 years old) I did not have ANY items needed for this easy experiment! It was AGONY watching you have all the fun so I got thinking. You said in the video that those alka seltzer pills were made from baking soda and vinegar. Well, that got me thinking even more. I asked mom for some baking soda and vinegar. She showed me where they were. I told her what you had said about the pills. Well, she was PRETTY enthusiastic about me wanting to do an experiment so, apparently she said, “yes”. Well JACKPOT! It subsituted very nicely! Thank you so much Aurora, for teaching me that science is SO much more than long boring hours of writing,reading,and staring at a textbook!

Thanks Again!

I will have a whole new perspective of science from now on!

Abby

Oh P.S. We almost landed it on the roof once we got the alka seltzers pills!

By: Laura Rosales-Dills

Laura Rosales-Dills — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 19:32:56 +0000

Cailey, I just thought of something. Since the lids go farther than the lego car, why not try to shoot the lids out as a cannon! Maybe you can make a game out of it! Try it! In fact, I will try it too.
Andrew

By: Jennifer Wright

Jennifer Wright — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 03:57:16 +0000

We had a lot of fun with this today and we were able to get three uses per tablet!

By: Laura Rosales-Dills

Laura Rosales-Dills — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 16:52:42 +0000

We couldn’t find a canister for our pop rocket, so we are going to try a Wallgreens medicene canister. Since our family gets their medicene from Wallgreens, all we have to do is wait until another canister is empty. We will also ask Wallgreens if they have any empty canisters that they don’t need.

By: Michele Floyd

Michele Floyd — Tue, 17 May 2011 20:50:08 +0000

Subject: A great project

such a cool idea just popped into my head! I have not tested it yet.

items needed: 2 chairs with back rests, 1 straw, 1 balloon, strong string/rope etc., tape, and materials used for the pop rocket above.

step 1 set the two chairs backrests facing each other about 7 feet apart.
step 2 put the straw on the string.
step 3 tie the string from one chair to the other.
step 4 blow your balloon up, tie it off, and tape it to the straw.
step 5 put a long enough strip of tape to go around the pop rocket capsule and stay attached to the balloon.
step 6 before you tape on the pop rocket activate it (put water into the film capsule put in the Alka-Seltzer) as quick as possible tape the pop rocket to the balloon and step back.
let me know how it works out!
— Liam 7th grader

By: Aurora

Aurora — Sat, 14 May 2011 18:01:57 +0000

You need to make your vehicle as low-friction as possible – which means it needs to roll easily and be lightweight (like the film lid). Legos tend to be heavy and have a lot of friction in the wheels, so what about strapping this rocket to a piece of foam and floating it in the bathtub tonight? Water makes a good low-friction environment.

Make sure to send me a picture to post!

If you really want to strap this to your vehicle, then increase the size of your container (or number of containers) and the amount of effervescents used.

By: lisa fox

lisa fox — Sat, 14 May 2011 12:21:48 +0000

Aurora: Can you help with modification for a pop rocket mobile? Daughter Tori, 6, built a lego vehicle, attached the film canister and of course the lid travels a great distance but the vehicle barely moves. Max distance achieved has been about 6 inches. She made it as light as possible, larger wheels are better, used a slight incline, smooth concrete. Dad tried to modify further but, alas he found Tori’s modifications to be the best of all. :) Go Girl!!

He even tried to place it on the hood of our car.

We suspect a pin hole in the lid will not solve our physic’s problem.

Suggestions?

By: Cathy Higgins Higgins

Cathy Higgins Higgins — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 23:46:31 +0000

Hi! It’s Cailey!

We didn’t have any film or M&M canisters so I used a LOT of different things.
Here are a few of them: A small Wyler’s Light container, a balloon, and a little ziplock bag.
The container blasted about 6′, the balloon just kept on expanding but the baggie was an awesome surprise!
Tomorrow we are buying M&M’s (Yum!) to try that canister to see how high we can get it!

Anyway, it was fun!

By: tracy nelms

tracy nelms — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 15:41:58 +0000

what if that hit a light in the video it sound like is made a hole in the roof :-/

By: Aurora

Aurora — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 17:57:09 +0000

Try it and let me know how it goes!

By: Elizabeth Covalt

Elizabeth Covalt — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 17:01:18 +0000

Could you uses soda and mentos for the rocket instead?

By: Melanie Fly

Melanie Fly — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 18:08:59 +0000

Hi I am Abigael Melanie’s daughter, and I’m eleven. This experiment was AWSOME! At first we tried it in the house, bad idea I know. When we tried it ourselves I put the water and the tablet into the canister too slowly. So when I finally put the lid on the canister it exploded from under my hand! Of couse it left a big mess on my desk in our school room. After doing this same thing twice I realized I needed to do everything faster and do it outside. When I did just that it worked better than I expected, my brother sister and I were ocuppied for about two hours until we nearly ran out of alka-seltzters. So my family really enjoyed this experiment just as I did. THANKS!

By: Lucette Bernard

Lucette Bernard — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 17:06:12 +0000

it was soooooooooooo much fun!! we tried it a and if you put less water it will shoot up farthere.

By: Aurora

Aurora — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 16:00:23 +0000

You’ll need to find a place that still develops film and ask for their recycling bin. You can also use the ideas suggested here int he comment section including the M&M containers or plastic bottle with a cork.

By: Sophia Poli

Sophia Poli — Sat, 15 Jan 2011 15:38:57 +0000

where can i get a film canester in stores?

By: Aurora

Aurora — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 14:19:55 +0000

Your web browser has a bookmark option – create a section for e-Science and organize them under that index for quick access. Or simply write down the name on a post-it so you can enter it in the search box and find it super-quick. I have several post-its on my computer monitor frame.

By: Dominique Poli

Dominique Poli — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 03:42:24 +0000

so cool but i wish there was a way to book mark the experaments you like.

By: Jill Mayer

Jill Mayer — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 20:00:13 +0000

Hi Aurora,
I’m Jill’s daughter. My name is Greta and I’m 6.
I thought it was really cool! it went about 15 feet up.
This is my big sister’s science program but I like it too.
This is my first experiment.
-Greta

By: Kiley Barton

Kiley Barton — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 02:33:28 +0000

If you go to any costco or Sams film area..Just ask if they have any film canisters for a science project..Costco gave us a huge bag of film canisters for my boys.

By: Angela Doty

Angela Doty — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 00:33:29 +0000

We tried to find film canisters, and could not, since most people have gone to digital. I tried the clear plastic viles that came with our Diamond package, and they leaked a little when turned upside down. After a couple tries, they did launch, but two of the three plastic viles cracked when they hit the kitchen floor (tile). I recommend others try it outside if they want to preserve the viles!

By: Aurora

Aurora — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 21:06:31 +0000

Yes, this was from the Aeronautics DVD that had dozens of projects on it – most of which are located now in the Flight Lab of e-Camp.

By: Teresa Pipkins

Teresa Pipkins — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 17:36:40 +0000

that seems like its a cut from a longer video, is it? but not from one as long as the Science Fair Rocketry Project video,

thanks again, Brannon, 12
\

By: Aurora

Aurora — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 01:35:15 +0000

What kind of info are you looking for? Is there a specific question I can answer for you? I did post information on how to turn this experiment into a full-blown Science Fair Rocketry Project, complete with a very long step-by-step instructional video, written report, and guidebook.

By: Teresa Pipkins

Teresa Pipkins — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 15:29:23 +0000

is there a video with more info?

thanks, Brannon

By: Sam

Sam — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 14:36:58 +0000

Cool

By: Sam

Sam — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 14:36:10 +0000

I said his not Jan Secord (above)

By: Aurora

Aurora — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 14:35:55 +0000

Hmmm… since alka-seltzer is pretty concentrated stuff and you’re only supposed to drink the solution (not the tablet) when you use it as medicine, I would recommend trying the mentos-coke combination in your mouth instead (only don’t swallow it or you’ll get serious digestive problems).

By: Jan Secord

Jan Secord — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 14:32:50 +0000

Aurora, you need to try the experiment in your mouth!(with out the film cannister) And see how long you can ceep the stuff in there with your mouth closed! It is SO fun!

By: Aurora

Aurora — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 19:48:43 +0000

Try using only a SMALL amount of water (like about a quarter-full) and then the tablet… does that help? And yes, baking soda and vinegar is a great variation.

By: Billy Campbell

Billy Campbell — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 18:25:11 +0000

It wouldn’t work for us using the water and Alka Seltzer tablet. Going to try baking soda and vinegar.

By: Jon Meijer

Jon Meijer — Thu, 27 May 2010 12:43:44 +0000

This is such a good laugh!! After a little kitchen search the eldest came with the magnificant idear to use those tablets for tired feet ) We decorated each our own little container with some colour and some mousetraps etc.(yep, girls will be girls )) Mum taped a little lego-man on top and of he went.
A quarter of a tablet is good for 4 of 5 blasts. The less water, the better and higher he will go.
Okay, we are going to use baking powder now…..see if lego-man will go even higher this time.

By: Kim Wilson

Kim Wilson — Mon, 24 May 2010 10:44:58 +0000

A fantastic time had by both boys (9 and 10)! They started experimenting right away to discover whether more or less water worked best–then when they found the answer, proceeded to come up with a theory why. Next they put a Lego man on top of the rocket to zip him into space–they got him quite a bit higher than the house!
Then they tried gluing foam wings on the sides; one got blasted off, but then they liked it better since the canister spun round as it came back to earth. They stopped only because we ran out of AlkaSelzter!

By: Marguerite Sanders

Marguerite Sanders — Wed, 19 May 2010 15:28:36 +0000

Hello Aurora and everybody! This is a great blog to read. Great to hear the ideas, experiments, and way to get film containers. Thinking, I couldn’t get film containers I was on the lookout for something to do for our big family. At Sam’s club recently they were selling this zipfizz drink powder. So,after using the powder, that is the container my husband tried with about a quarter of the alka seltzer tablet and water. It was fantastic ! One of my sons helped him and said it went higher with less water and more air, if I understood him correctly. Storming this morning, so hopefully this afternoon all the children get to do theirs. (forgot about the m&m containers) thanks so much! Love your enthusiasim! Hope every mom finds their enthusiastic thing to share in life!

By: nishit mishra

nishit mishra — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 03:15:43 +0000

I have tried this experiment this is aosome

By: Shannon Wade

Shannon Wade — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 01:00:44 +0000

My friend and I tried this experiment with alcohol, hydrogen peroxide, vinegar, baking soda, and an alkaseltzer tablet. It went so high. (my friend wanted me to say it blew up our neighbor’s tree; however, it didn’t.)

By: Brooke Wade

Brooke Wade — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 01:04:24 +0000

Just tried it with baking soda/vinegar. The baking soda just covered the alkaseltzer tablet, and then there was a lot of vinegar. The pop rocket exploded so high that I couldn’t find it again afterwards! Amazing experiment!

By: Veronica Cable

Veronica Cable — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 02:44:24 +0000

Rate this experiment: I rate it 10/10 because it is really fun and has a lot of different solutions. By the way, Aurora thank you very much for answering the question about the alcohol and tablet. Sound like you took a lot of time with it.

By: Veronica Cable

Veronica Cable — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 02:41:28 +0000

Eilkeen Wilkens wrote: Our FAST reaction was about 20 feet high (alkaseltzer & vinegar). We used a wine bottle and tried putting a cork on, but the we couldn’t get the cork on fast enough and it exploded all over the helpers.

Sounds really fun.

By: Aurora

Aurora — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 14:01:23 +0000

Clavonne Holter wrote: …have you seen the you-tube video about diet coke and mentos? Now there is a propellant! We tried it but the mentos came out of the package and we couldn’t get the lid on fast enough, so we had a towering fountain of coke.”

Yes, that’s a great one! The mint-flavored coating on the candy reacts with the stuff in soda to release all the CO2 bubbles at once, and your bottle shape resembles a rocket (big to small diameter increases the speed of the soda as it exits). You can get the same result by placing soda in an ultrasonic jewelry cleaner – the vibrations will knock the CO2 bubbles out all at the same time as well, producing a soda geyser! This is a FAST chemical reaction, so you’ll need to get creative about how to get the top on (which is why the jewelry cleaner may work better, because you can start and stop the reaction when you want to). Happy Experimenting!!

By: Clavonne Holter

Clavonne Holter — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 04:30:33 +0000

We loved the pop rockets. My soon to be ten year old is having a birthday party and we are going to do them. We found foamy rockets at the craft store and are going to hot glue them to the bottom of the canister. Can’t wait to see how they fly tomorrow!
Will let you know.

BTW, have you seen the you-tube video about diet coke and mentos? Now there is a propellant! We tried it but the mentos came out of the package and we couldn’t get the lid on fast enough, so we had a towering fountain of coke.

By: Tanya Barber

Tanya Barber — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 22:40:35 +0000

We drilled a small hole in the lid, used modeling clay as a plug, and secured the lid to the canister with duct tape after filling it with 1 tbsp water and 1 effervesent tablet. We thought that restricting the exit area would increase velocity and height but it just pushed out the plug and streamed out in an arch under the lid and lifted off about 2 inches. We all had a good laugh and it was subsequently dubbed (by 3 boys) as the whizzing rocket! Shouldn’t this have worked as anticipated?

By: Aurora

Aurora — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 13:19:31 +0000

Veronica Cable wrote: “We tried the rocket with alcohol and the vinegar/baking soda tablet. It just sat there and didn’t do anything. Does anyone know why?”

It sounds like you found out that the tablet dissolves (is soluble) in water, but not alcohol. In chemistry, we make solutions (dissolving solid bits in liquids) so that the surface area of the molecules are fully exposed to each other to chemically react. When you put the tablet in the water, it exposes more of the molecules on the surface of the tablet to each other, which is why the bubbles appear on the surface. It sounds like the tablet is not soluble in alcohol. A lot of solids are soluble in either alcohol or water, but not both. Does that help?

By: Veronica Cable

Veronica Cable — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 02:06:23 +0000

We tried the rocket with alcohol and the vinegar/baking soda tablet. It just sat there and didn’t do anything. Does anyone know why?