Introduction: Bottle Rocket (kid Safe)

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Welcome to the bottle rocket tutorial!

Let's get started!

There are 5 steps to this tutorial from start to finish, not including getting the supplies. Here are all of the things you will need:

Supplies

  1. Plastic Bottle
  2. Tape - preferably duck tape
  3. Cereal box
  4. Distilled White vinegar
  5. Baking Soda
  6. Paper towel
  7. 2 wooden skewers, pencils also work or some thin wooden sticks that are straight and approximately the same height. (The idea is to have 4 equal length sticks to stand up the rocket on.
  8. Sharpie
  9. Scissors (if you are a child, please use with your parent's permission)

Step 1: Making the Wings & Cone

  1. Take apart the cereal box and flatten it out.
  2. Using a ruler, draw the 4 fins for the rocket, the fin size and shape is up to you, I preferred to make them a similar size to that of a paper airplane'.
  3. Cut out the fins, ask your parent to help you!
  4. Once you have the 4 wings cut out, you can make the cone for the rocket.

    The cone is optional and have your parent do this part!
  5. Take a side of the cereal box, and mold it into a cone.
  6. place it on top of the bottom of the plastic bottle.
  7. Trim the lower parts of the cone until the edge of it doesn't overflow from the edge of the plastic bottle.

Step 2: Attach the Wings and Cone

  1. Rip off 8 pieces of tape which are a bit shorter than the length of your wings.
  2. Layout a piece of tape, take a wing and lay it onto the tape so it covers about 1/3 of the tape (lengthwise). Look at the image above as an example.
  3. Take the wing and attach it to the bottle with the wing tip towards the bottom of the bottle.
  4. Now, take another piece of tape and attach it to the other side of the wing.
  5. Press down firmly on both sides to ensure the wing is attached to the bottle.
  6. Repeat from step 2 for the rest of the wings.

Optional Step - Attaching the cone:

  1. Rip off a long piece of tape.
  2. Grab the bottle and hold it upside down.
  3. Place the cone on top of the bottle.
  4. Wrap the tape around the edge of the bottle where it meets the cone and firmly press down to ensure the cone is attached to the bottle.

Step 3: Attach the Legs

  1. Take the 2 skewers and cut them into equal halves so you know have 4 wooden sticks each approximately the same length.
  2. Take 4 small strips of tape and attach the 4 sticks to 4 sides of the rocket so it can stand on its own.

Step 4: Preparing the Fuel + Rocket for Launch

First, let's take a look at the reaction which powers the rocket. The video shows the vinegar and baking soda reaction, the combination of the two creates gases which when contained in the small space of the rocket, exert a lot of force onto the walls of the bottle. The pressure will burst the cap off and cause the rocket to be propelled into the air, extremely fast.

  1. Now, pour the vinegar into the bottle, about halfway.
  2. Take a paper towel, and insert it delicately into the mouth of the rocket, making a cavity to fill with the baking soda while making sure that the paper towel is not touching the vinegar. It's helpful to use a deep cup to hold the rocket in place
  3. Pour the baking soda into the paper towel that's in the mouth of the bottle until the baking soda fills up to the top of the cavity formed by inserting the paper towel.
  4. Close the lid tightly on the bottle, making sure that the paper towel does not interfere with a proper seal

DO NOT turn the bottle right side up until you are ready to launch it

Step 5: Launch

Now that you have the full for launch. Grab your parent and let's launch this thing!

  1. Take the rocket outside, ensuring that it remains upside down the whole time
  2. When ready to launch, flip it upside down and back away.
  3. Watch as it blasts off.

Thanks for making this bottle rocket with me!

NOTE: It's best to launch it outside, in a park preferably, and make sure no one is walking close to the rocket when you are watching it. If there is an issue and it doesn't launch, have your parent approach the rocket and hand launch it as shown in the video.