Space at Home: Rocket Launch Experiment

Take part in your own cosmic experiments at home. Watch our short video created by Cosmos Planetarium and you can make your own paper rocket and launch them into the air using Alka-Seltzer tablets and water. This is a messy activity and adult supervision is required.
For this experiment you will need:
• Card or paper
• Empty film canister with lid that snaps inside
• Coloured pens
• Sticky tape
• Scissors
• Original effervescent formula Alka-Seltzer or other effervescent type tablets
• Water
• Safety glasses
• Metric tape measure or meter stick (optional)
You can download our instruction sheet on our website here: www.callanders...
The science bit:
This experiment demonstrates Newton's third law of motion; for every action, there’s an opposite and equal reaction. When you mix Alka-Seltzer (which is an effervescent tablet) with water, a chemical reaction takes place between the citric acid and sodium bicarbonate contained in the tablet and the water. As the Alka-Seltzer tablet fizzes, carbon dioxide is released inside the film canister. Pressure from the gas builds and eventually pops the lid off. The thrust of your rocket is related to how much pressure built up inside the canister before the top popped off. It goes up because gas is building inside the closed film canister and since the lid is the weakest point of the canister, the lid pops off and all that gas comes rushing out of the end of the canister. This is exactly how all rockets work whether you use an effervescent tablet as your fuel or a chemical rocket propellant like they do at NASA. Why not repeat your experiment to see what gives the best rocket launch? You could change the design of your rocket, use more or less fuel (effervescent tablets and water) or use hot or cold water. Why not change your fuel and try baking soda and vinegar instead? Remember that when you are conducting experiments you only want to change one thing at a time. Keep everything else the same in order to see how the thing you changed (the variable) affects the outcome of your rocket launch.
Happy experimenting!