Description How to use the FizzRocket Wear safety glasses Add a scoop of bicarbonate soda to the scoop as shown in the video and then pour this into the stand. Add the vinegar into the scoop as shown in the video and pour this into the rocket. Place the stand on the ground and connect the rocket to the stand Stand back! Why does the bubbly reaction happen in your rocket? Reacting vinegar and bicarbonate soda together produces carbon dioxide and water. The reaction is as follows Vinegar Bicarbonate Soda —> Carbonic Acid Sodium Acetate The carbonic acid is unstable though, so it breaks down into liquid water and carbon dioxide as a gas, causing the massive ‘build-up’ of pressure you saw in the experiment. Why does the rocket launch? The build-up of carbon dioxide in the reaction above increases the pressure inside the rocket. The high-pressure gas eventually breaks the rocket away from the stand and the force of the gas pushing downwards causes the rocket to fly upwards. As Isaac Newton says, objects will move the opposite way to which you push! Teaching ideas for the FizzRocket Make a long sheet of graph paper using butcher’s paper, making gridlines of in increments of at least centimetres in bold pen. Hang this sheet of the edge of a verandah or 2 story building and weight it down so it can’t blow away. Now use the FizzRocket and film its launch with the graph paper behind it. You should now be able to use the timer on your video to work out the acceleration of the rocket! What is the relationship between the weight of the rocket and the height that it reaches after launch? Research how modern rockets work and the history of rockets and their inventors. Follow SpaceX, NASA, Roscosmos and other launches and show videos of rocket launches and landings. Watch the movie Apollo 13 with your students School science visit that expands on this science teaching resource Find out more about the Forces, Friction & Movement School Incursion
