Simple Rocket Experiments You Can Share With Your Homeschoolers

For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. If you inflate a balloon and release it (without tying the end), the air in the balloon goes one way and the balloon goes the other way. Rockets use this same principle. The thrust coming out the rear pushes the rocket forward.

The rockets we’re about to build rely on generating enough pressure and releasing that pressure very quickly. You will generate pressure by pumping air or through chemical reactions (which generate gaseous products).

Let us begin!

Seltzer Rockets: Place one Alka-Seltzer tablet in a white Fuji film container (black Kodak containers won’t work) and fill one-third full with water. Working quickly, cover it up and invert it to the sidewalk. Back off… POP! You will find that there is an optimum water level for the maximum height. If you work fast, you can get around four launches from a tablet. What happens if you try two tablets at the same time?

Paper Gun Rockets: Make a very long straw by taping two straws together. Roll an 8½x11″ sheet of paper into a long tube and tape it shut (younger children can wrap the paper around a dowel to help them). Cut triangular fins out of index cards and hot glue them to one end of the rocket. To make the nose, cut a circle out of paper. You can trace the inside diameter of the roll of masking tape to get a nice circle. To turn a flat circle into a 3D cone, start cutting the circle in half, but stop cutting when you reach the center.. Slide one fin over the other to form a cone (nose) and tape it closed. Pile a large amount of glue inside the cone and add the long straw and wait for it to dry. Slide the straw into the tube and seal the nosecone to the body of the rocket.. When dry, blow into the straw to check for leaks. It should be impossible to blow through. If you have a leak, go back and fix it now. Otherwise, slide it over the you metal tube and blow hard. If you have one, apply a nozzle from an air tank or compressor to blast these rockets hundreds of feet in the air. If your straws come loose, just cut the rock. Position the body just below the nose cone and rebuild the straw cone assembly, snapping it into place when done.

Slingshot Rockets Poke a small hole in the bottom of a canister of black Kodak film. String 5 rubber bands together and push one end of the rubber band chain through the hole from the outside, catching it with a paper clip on the inside so it cannot slip back through the opening (like a hairpin). Hot glue the container to one end of a 6″ piece of ¾” foam pipe insulation and tape around the circumference with a few wraps. The rubber bands should be hanging from the foam tube. Hot glue triangular foam flaps to the opposite end. To throw, hook the elastic band over your thumb, pull back, and release.

Puff Rockets: Grab a clean, empty shampoo or lotion bottle. Make sure the bottle you choose gives you a good puff of air through the top cap when you squeeze it. You will also need two straws, one slightly smaller than the other. And a small piece of foam. Insert the smaller straw into the hole in the lid. If you have problems, ream the hole or just remove the cap and seal the connection with a piece of clay or lots of hot glue. Insert some foam into one end of the larger straw. Slide the larger straw (your rocket) onto the smaller straw (your launcher). Squeeze the bottle hard! FAGOT! What bottles work best? Does the length of the straw matter? (We had a rocket that cleared 25 feet.)

Paper Micro Rockets: Spirally wrap a thin strip of paper around and along a wooden pencil and tape to secure (alternatively, you can use a bare straw instead of making your own rocket body out of paper, but then you will need a slightly smaller launch tube straw.) Hot glue triangular flaps made from an index card on one end. Fold the opposite end over twice and secure with a ring of ribbon to make a nose. Insert a straw into the body of the rocket and blow hard!