Have you ever wanted to show you kid’s something cool in the summer, and wanted to enjoy it yourself? The bottle rocket is a great way to do this.
The bottle rocket is a type of small projectile that in its most basic form can reach many impressive heights. I have used these on many occasions when I get bored with my friends and all the expensive Estes Rocket Engines run out (Yes I enjoy these but I am only a teenager J). To build one you will need the following items.
A bike pump with a needle nozzle for pumping up balls
Some empty soft drink bottles
A cork
Water
Tape
A tent peg or some other means of connecting it to the ground
The following items are optional but still come in handy when making a more elaborate rocket.
Some dish washing liquid
Plastic ice cream container
Scissors
Hot glue gun
Paint
Okay now on to the building of the basic rocket.
Step 1.)
First take the cork and push the needle attachment through the cork so that the needle pierces the bottom and top of the cork.
Step 2.)
Attach the needle to the bike pump.
Step 3.)
Using a tap or some other means, place a small amount of water into your bottle
Step 4.)
Secure the tent peg the tubing and he bottom of the cork, so it can be placed in the ground and the bottle tightly on top of the cork.
Step 5.)
Using the bottle with the water in it, shove it onto the cork, the tighter the better. If the cork is to small, find another, if there is no others available roll a few layers of tape around the cork, near the top and retry.
Step 6.)
Place the launcher with the rocket firmly into the ground. Now give the bottle a few strong pumps. Do you see the bubbles? If so keep pumping until liftoff is achieved. If not you check that the needle pierces the cork.
Step 7.)
Watch your rocket soar up to 100m in the air. You may want to try with different amounts of water to achieve better results.
Now if you were able to find the optional items, here are some things that will make launching these rockets even more fun!
If you found some dish washing liquid, make a mixture of this and the water, it for some reason makes the bottle soar higher.
If you were able to find the other four items on the list, you can use them to add fins and cones to the rocket and make them all different shapes and colors.
So if you’re a parent with a young child or just a board teenager, try making the simple bottle rocket and achieve something for today!
