Tuesday, February 21, 2006

Baking soda rockets are worth it

I'm always on the lookout for fun little projects to do with the kids....with small investments of time/money/effort. One that paid off was making baking soda rockets.

Ethan and I did this a few years ago. He got the idea from watching the Zoom TV show. We fumbled around a bit because we tried to do it based solely on what he remembered from watching the show...things went a lot better after I downloaded some instructions. Ethan's verbal directions at age 4 were not too clear.

The main thing is finding some way to combine baking soda and vinegar in a bottle. It'll fizz up fast, and if you set things up right, you can shoot a cork out of your bottle.

We tried wrapping some baking soda up in a square of toilet paper, dropping the wad into the neck of a 2-liter bottle, then quickly corking the bottle.

In a few seconds there was a satisfying thunk and the cork shot 30 feet into the air. We laughed and did it again, and again, until we lost the cork in the tall grass.

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