Rocket science

[horsetechie]

For the record, trying to make a bottle rocket with just vinegar and baking soda is a lot harder than it sounds. That, or the design I used was epic fail - only because the pressurized ones using an air pump or air hose sounded too complicated

Comments

[calibrata]

When I was a little older than Josh, my mother convinced me that what I really wanted was to fly paper rockets by launching them with rubber bands. (Can you guess we didn't have much money?)

I got a science fair project out of it, too. Won my first calculator. :D

[horsetechie]

That sounds like anpther good idea for kids too. Reminds me of this spring loaded planes we bought at the dollar store. The device you shoot the plane from looks like a gun though, but it does send that plane far.

[cynlee]

Take an empty 2-liter soda bottle, fasten three to four sturdy cardboard fins to it (open end of bottle facing down). Get a cork that can fit snugly in the opening, push a thin, sharp nail through it, then insert an inflating needle. Fill the bottle with enough water to fill the bottom four inches of the bottle (to the level where the bottom of the label is), plug the cork/needle into the opening, and attach said inflating needle to bike tire pump (foot action is much easier on the back than the old hand one). Then carefully set it up, and start pumping as fast as your Astroboy leg can move. One of my students' bottle actually landed on the roof of the building. Another got stuck in a tree. But mostly they sail pretty high.

NOW-- I wrote all of that without reading the other two comments, so sorry if I repeated what you've already tried.