This is fun little experiment to try that is safe for pretty much anybody as long as they don’t do anything stupid with it. It’s a bottle rocket. All you need is some vinegar (apple cider vinegar works best for some reason), a bottle, some baking soda, a few paper towels or toilet paper and a cork. You may also need a toy car depending on what you want your rocket to be.
Really, there are two things that can be your rocket. The cork and the bottle itself. If you want the cork to be the rocket here’s what you need to do:
1. Tape the bottle down to something immobile like a brick or a block of wood (or if you’d like you can always hold the bottle, just be sure to keep it off the the side of you).
2. Fill the bottle about a quarter of the way full with vinegar.
3. Measure about one teaspoon of baking soda and wrap it in the paper towel or toilet paper. Make sure that the paper is wrapped tight around the baking soda. This is crucial because if it isn’t tight enough you won’t have time to put the cork in all the way.
4. Put the baking soda in the bottle and quickly put the cork in making sure that its a tight fit (if your cork isn’t big enough to fit in your bottle’s end, try wrapping tape around it).
5. Stand away from the front of the bottle and wait for a boom.
6. If no boom comes, go to the side of the bottle and check to see if there are leaks and if there are, find some way of removing the cork.
Now, if you want the bottle to be the rocket, I suggest that you tape it to a toy car. This makes it easier for the bottle to be pushed along and for even better results try putting the cork up against a solid structure like the side of a building. The directions are basically the same, except you tape the bottle to the car instead of something immobile.
There’s also a third variation that I’ve tried. Rather than using a bottle, you use an empty film canister. Again the steps are basically the same except you need to make sure that the canister is pointing up. As long as you put the cap on there tight, there should be no leaks. The only difference between this one and the others is that this one will probably be a longer wait for a boom.
Have fun!
