I’m reposting this experiment at the top of my blog, since I’ve been telling everyone about it. Most of my projects use things you already have around the house, but this is worth a trip to a camera store to get some film canisters!
Three important forces act on rockets: THRUST (the force lifting the rocket), DRAG (force acting against the rocket caused by air resistance) and WEIGHT (the force produced by gravity dragging down the weight of the rocket.)
You can make your own rocket using a film canister. The clear kind with a lid that pops into the end works best and most stores that develop film will give you discarded canisters if you ask nicely! You’ll also need water and an effervescent tablet, like Alka-Seltzer, or Airborne to create the THRUST to launch your rocket into the air. Paper, tape and markers will help you make a longer rocket with fins (for stability) and of course, cool decorations. Here’s a quick video on how to make these rockets, followed by more detailed instructions and a little more physics! Astronauts are very safety conscious, and you should be too! WEAR SAFETY GOGGLES WHILE DOING THIS EXPERIMENT!
To make a rocket, cut paper into a rectangle (maybe 6″x4″), tape it to the film canister with the edge tight against the open side of the canister, wrap it around to make a tube, and tape it tightly. Next, trace a drinking glass, cut a pie-shaped piece out of it out, and roll it into a cone. Tape the cone to the end of your rocket (opposite the film canister.) Finally, tape fins on the rocket and decorate it!
To launch your rocket, put your safety goggles on and chew a piece of gum. Stick the gum into the inside of the film canister lid and firmly stick half an Alka-Seltzer or Airborne tablet in the gum so it won’t fall out.
Fill your film canister 1/3 to halfway with water and find a flat surface to set your rocket on. When you’re ready, firmly grasp the film canister end and, holding it upside down, pop the lid on TIGHTLY.
Flip your rocket over to begin the reaction and quickly set it on the flat surface you chose. Stand back and wait for the pressure (formed by the chemical reaction between the tablet and water) to build up and blow the lid off the canister, launching your rocket in to the air. Be patient, since it may take 30 seconds to a minute!
What happens? Pressure builds up inside the canister as carbon dioxide gas is produced by the chemical reaction. The gas is then rapidly expelled from the film canister when the lid blows off. This pushes the rocket in the opposite direction, demonstrating Newton’s third law: for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction (THRUST.) DRAG and WEIGHT quickly bring these rockets back down. We shot a few film canister rockets off in Kare11’s studio and they almost hit the rafters!
Real rockets have enough fuel to produce enough thrust to carry them outside the earth’s atmosphere.
When NASA scientists wanted to study star dust (particles from comets and interstellar dust), they had to find a way to slow down the tiny pieces of matter as they flew through space. By the way, interstellar means “between stars.” NASA’s Stardust spacecraft would encounter star dust traveling 6 times the speed of a rifle bullet! At these speeds, a collision with most materials would shatter, or burn up the space dust they were trying to collect.
In order to solve this problem, the scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in California crafted a special “space jello” called Aerogel which could slow space particle down and trap them, undamaged, for study. Aerogel is similar to glass, but is 1000 times less dense. In fact Aerogel is 99.8 percent empty space. Imagine a box of air filled with tiny, tiny glass threads. When space dust hits this jello-like substance, it makes a tiny tunnel in the aerogel that helps scientists find and collect the dust under a powerful microscope. Then they can study the dust to see what it is made of!
I was luckily enough to get a sample of Aerogel from Stephanie Smith, who works at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Aerogel looks like light-blue smoke when you hold it in your hand. It is as light as a feather, but it feels solid, dry, and harder than jello when you touch it! You can read more about Aerogel and the Stardust missions by clicking here, on the JPL website! It’s amazing science. They’ve found many interesting elements and chemical compounds in the star dust already. I can’t wait to see what they find next!
Here’s a video of us playing with the Aerogel Stephanie brought to the NASATweetup! (courtesy of MindspaceLTD)
A recent trip to Kennedy Space Center made me feel like a kid again and I’m reveling in a momentary lapse of cynicism. Please excuse me if I sound cheesy, or over the top, but I haven’t come back down to earth quite yet.
The United States is is a young nation. We have not been afraid to explore, and our boldness led us to take humankind’s first steps on the moon.
Naturally, our curiosity has led us to some dead ends and we’ve taken a few tumbles, but through basic scientific exploration and hard work we have stumbled upon a wealth of information that has made each of our lives better.
Even while being robbed of our innocence, our country has managed to hold strong to the ideals of freedom and equality. Sadly, our childlike wonder has not been so lucky and is in danger of becoming a casualty of the aging process. Gravity pulls us down each time we cut funding to scientific research. It doesn’t hurt much yet, but could bring us to our knees.
At Kennedy Space Center the last week of April, I attended a “tweetup” sponsored by NASA for 150 of it’s Twitter followers. There to witness the launch of space shuttle Endeavour, we were given behind-the-scenes tours at NASA and listened to a number of astronauts, scientists, engineers, and technicians speak about working for the space program. Their passion and conviction for what they do was the most patriotic expression I’ve ever witnessed. The message I heard over and over again was the mantra of the American dream.
“Work hard in school and you can be whatever you want to be.” (Maybe even an astronaut.)
“The best stuff is still in front of us.”
“When we stop exploring we will falter.”
NASA is not about astronauts sitting around eating freeze-dried ice cream. It is about exploration and science. It is about “revealing the unknown about the planet on which we live” and learning about our place in the universe. The astronauts on the space station are conducting experiments which will yield better vaccines and cancer treatments, among other things. They’re gleaning priceless information about our home planet that we simply can’t capture with our feet on the ground.
Of course it is important for us to be fiscally responsible as a nation, but we can’t lose our childlike wonder or we will lose what sets us apart from the rest of the world. We will fail to thrive when we fail to explore and make new discoveries. NASA embodies the American spirit of exploration and symbolizes what makes us so great as a nation.
As NASA’s chief scientist Waleed Abdalati said, there is a “brilliant future ahead that is ours for the creating.”
We waved and screamed as the Astrovan (carrying the astronaut crew to the shuttle Endeavour) drove past our NASA Tweetup group yesterday. Moments later, our hearts fell when we witnessed the first-ever Astrovan turn-around as the launch was “scrubbed”, or delayed, and the astronauts headed back to quarantine to wait for the next launch attempt. Putting on brave smiles, we trudged back to our tent. Everyone was sad, but one thing we learned at the tweetup is that NASA always puts safety first, and for good reason.
@Astro_Flow (Leland Melvin) being interviewed by Levar Burton
Astronaut Ricky Arnold
Astronauts. Absolutely nothing comes before astronaut safety. Not a presidential visit, not millions of viewers, not politics…nothing. So, when an Auxiliary Power Unit heater didn’t seem to be working correctly, they delayed the launch. I was astonished at the overwhelming pride and sense of responsiblity that the NASA employees who spoke to us expressed for each mission and every human life that we send into space.
The astronauts who spoke to our group were amazing, accomplished individuals with a unified message: be curious, work hard in school, and follow your dreams. Any kid who wants to be an astronaut has that potential. And parents…it’s our job to fan that creative, imaginative, curious spark in our kids, whether it’s by letting them bang on some pans (Astronaut Leland Melvin) to learn about sound, or simply to encourage them to do something that might seem out of reach. (NASA Astronaut Ricky Arnold is a teacher, not a military man.)
You’ll be hearing more about the astronauts soon, but I’m off to the Kennedy Space Center Visitor’s center for the afternoon for a final day of space immersion before I head home. Next week, I’ll post video of the astrovan turning around and write a lot more about what I learned. I’m even bringing home a sample of “aerogel” from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California!
I was thrilled to get my first question from a student named Ian yesterday! He asked how the space shuttle Endeavour got her name.
When NASA invited students to name the new shuttle they were building, over 70,000 kids replied to the challenge. You can read more about the contest on NASA’s website, but here’s why Endeavour was the winning name:
“Endeavour was the most popular entry, accounting for almost one-third of the state-level winners. The Endeavour was a ship belonging to the British Royal Navy. In their entries, students focused on the vessel’s first voyage under the command of seaman and scientist James Cook in 1769-71. Cook steered Endeavour to Tahiti in the South Pacific to observe and record the rare event of the transit of Venus, a celestial event that allows observers on Earth to see Venus passing across the face of the sun.
Students drew parallels between astronomy on Cook’s Endeavour and on the space shuttle; the payloads of medicine, science and commerce that were on both the ship and shuttles; and the make-up of the crews, both of which included scientists.” www.nasa.gov
We use small chip clips to hold the air in until we're ready to rocket!
Duct-tape a balloon to a plastic straw, duct-tape the straw to a plastic car, blow up the balloon and let it go! The air escaping the balloon will propel the car in the opposite direction. This is an example of Newton’s Third Law (for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction) and demonstrates how rockets work. With balloons, escaping air molecules are essentially “thrown” from the balloon in one direction, pushing the balloon in the opposite direction. Since the balloon is attached to the car, the car moves along with it. These balloon racers work best on a very smooth surface with very light cars!
Similar technology is used to launch vehicles, like space shuttles, which are attached to a number of powerful rockets, burning rocket fuel. The rockets carry the shuttle into space as they’re pushed by the gases being “thrown” from them. Once outside the atmosphere, the space shuttles, or other space vehicles can maneuver through space, where there’s no air, by firing smaller rockets which push them in the opposite direction. Jet (turbine) engines and propellers don’t work in space, since they must push against air to work!
Don’t get frustrated if your rocket racer doesn’t work on the first try- it may take some work to get them going. Make sure the duct tape is tightly sealed against the straw, but isn’t mashing the straw, since the air must escape to push the car in the opposite direction! Engineers and scientists often have to work on designs for years to perfect them!
But last week I got an email saying I’d won a coveted spot in NASA’s Tweet-up for STS-134. In English, this means that I get to join 149 other lucky winners (including LeVar Burton of Star Trek/Reading Rainbow fame) to spend April 18th and 19th at Kennedy Space Center. If all goes according to plan, my Twittermates and I will get to witness the final launch of space shuttle Endeavour as the sun sets over the Florida coast.
Even better, we get front row, “VIP” seats at the launch with the media and have our own tent with A.C. and WiFi where we can tweet away as we listen to amazing speakers from NASA and the shuttle program.
I’ll set up my blog so you can easily follow my tweets online here as I tour Kennedy Space Center and follow the events leading to the launch! Please feel free to email or tweet me any questions you have about the space program so I’ll have lots of good questions for the speakers! If you’d prefer to follow me on Twitter, you can find me under KitchPantrySci.
I’ll be posting some fun propulsion experiments between now and then, so get ready to rocket!
For these experiments, you’ll need a glass bottle whose neck is a little smaller than a hard-boiled egg, medium- sized, peeled hard-boiled eggs, a banana, a birthday candle or two, and a long match or grill lighter. I’d recommend using the smallest eggs in the carton (extra-large eggs may not work) for this project. I went out to my recycling bin and discovered that my Trader Joe’s grape juice bottle is the perfect size. This experiment involves flame, so requires adult supervision, and may take a few tries, but it’s really fun when it works. Here’s a link to a demonstration I did (on Kare11 news) of this experiment that will walk you through the steps!
Peel the hard boiled egg, set it on the bottle, and let your children verify that it won’t easily squeeze through. Remove the egg. Cut a thick slice of banana as your “candle holder”, stick the candle in, and drop it into the bottle. Light the candle and set the egg on the bottle, making sure it forms a tight seal.
Now, sit back and watch what happens. Don’t pull the egg off when the candle goes out since it may take a while for the egg to be “pushed” into the bottle by the atmospheric pressure!
What happens? When the candle goes out from lack of oxygen, the remaining air in the bottle cools rapidly, decreasing the air pressure in the bottle and creating a partial vacuum. The outside air, who’s pressure is higher, actually pushes the egg into the bottle as it attempts to equalize the pressure inside of the bottle.
It’s also really fun to do the same thing, upside down, and it’s a little less tricky. Put two birthday candles in the wide end of a hard-boiled egg. Light them and hold them under the inverted bottle to warm the air inside.
Then, put the candle end of the egg into the bottle so it forms a seal. POP! Your egg will be pushed in by the atmospheric pressure as in the experiment above!
This is a great science project and results in beautifully colored paper that can be dried and used for art projects like collages.
All you’ll need is a head of red cabbage and some paper towels or white coffee filters. Alternately, you can just use the juice from canned red cabbage. I’d recommend wearing an old tee shirt or a home-made lab coat for this project, since I’m guessing that cabbage juice stains. To make a lab coat, just have kids write their name in permanent marker on the pocket of an old button-down shirt.
Chop half a head of red cabbage into small pieces and add it to a pan with about a cup of water. Boil the cabbage uncovered for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, let it cool, and strain the juice into a jar or bowl. (Save the cooked cabbage for your favorite recipe and make cole slaw with the other half!)
If you want to avoid the stove, chop half a head of red cabbage and blend it with about 3 cups of water. Strain the liquid through a colander and then through a coffee filter in a plastic bag with one corner cut off. Blended cabbage juice makes longer-lasting bubbles and turns a slightly brighter shade of blue!
Cut the paper towels or coffee filters into strips about an inch wide and a few inches long and soak them in the cabbage juice for about a minute. Remove them and let them dry on something that won’t stain. I blotted them a little to speed up the drying process. You might even try using a blow dryer!
When dry, your litmus paper will be ready to use for testing acidity. Your can dip the paper into orange juice, soapy water, lemon juice, baking soda in water, baking powder in water, vinegar, and anything else they want to test. The paper will turn red-pink in acids and blue or green in bases.
Everything in our world is made of very tiny pieces called atoms. Atoms are so small that if you blow up a balloon, it will contain about a hundred billion billion atoms of the gases that make up air. Atoms are often bonded to other atoms to form a group of linked atoms called a molecule. A water molecule, for example, has two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom, bonded together.
Acids usually dissolve in water to form free-floating hydrogen atoms. Bases are the opposite and take up free hydrogen atoms. The molecules in the cabbage juice litmus paper change when exposed to an acid or base, making the paper change color.
wrap it around to make a tube, and tape it tightly. Next, trace a drinking glass, 
cut a pie-shaped piece out of it out, and roll it into a cone. Tape the cone to the end of your rocket (opposite the film canister.) Finally, tape fins on the rocket 
and decorate it!
What happens? When the candle goes out from lack of oxygen, the remaining air in the bottle cools rapidly, decreasing the air pressure in the bottle and creating a partial vacuum. The outside air, who’s pressure is higher, actually pushes the egg into the bottle as it attempts to equalize the pressure inside of the bottle.
