These bottle rockets were a really fun and exciting way that the children can
do science on the playground.
Today we are going to do an amazing fantastic scientific experiment.
This experiment is gonna involve these tablets that you may have seen at home, paracetamol.
But these are fizzy paracetamol.
When these paracetamol hit the water,
this is what happens...
There's a chemical reaction now between the water and the tablets.
In all of those bubbles is carbon dioxide.
It's a bit like fizzy drinks, all the bubbles have carbon dioxide.
Have any of you seen anything like that before? Yeah...
Is that fun?
No.
Okay, so we're going to do something really exciting,
that wasn't much fun.
I'm gonna fill this half way with water,
get my jar ready,
then Michael's going to quickly put those tablets in,
I'm gonna quickly do up the lid, shake it....
It's not gonna work...
Woah! Yes!
You guys are going to test different variations of...
different sized bottles, how many tablets you're going to use,
and what type of water, because we have hot, warm and cold water.
Whoever's rocket goes the highest
is gonna win a prize.
These headache tablets contain a chemical which reacts with water to
produce carbon dioxide gas.
This gas builds up inside the bottle until the pressure is enough to pop the lid.
When the lid pops it pushes down on the bottom of the glass which results in an
upward push on the bottle,
a bit like the way you can jump up in the air
by pushing down on the ground. Once in the air
the liquid coming out of the bottle pushes it along in the same way
as the gas is coming out a real rocket propels it upwards.
In order for it to fly up
Do you think there has to be any space between the lid
and the bottom of the cup? You think there has to be space?
No! We need no space! We need thrust!
Why does there have to be no space between the lid and the bottom of the cup?
We need more thrust!
Why are you using big bottles?
Because then it'll go higher.
Because it has more space to fizz up.
One of the things you can investigate with this activity is how the
temperature of the water affects the reaction.
As some other children today found out, the hotter the water,
the more vigorously the tablets produce the gas.
This is because in hot water got the molecules of chemicals from the tablet
and the water particles have more energy and move more quickly.
This means they collide with each other more often
which results in more chemical reactions in a given time.
These bottle rockets are a really fun and exciting way to introduce your children to science.
if you're interested please go on our website, subscribe for more activities,
and download the info sheet for this one
and we look forward to seeing videos and pictures have you and your children
doing the same thing.