Newton's Third Law states that all forces come in pairs. When you push against the wall, the wall pushes back against you with an equal amount of force (or push). When a rocket fires, the rocket moves forward as the exhaust gases move in the opposite direction. An inflated balloon will zip through the air as the air escapes. For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.
If you were to fart in space, what do you think would happen (before it froze)? You would move in the opposite direction!
This rocket car uses high pressure on the inside to blow a weight out the back (the neoprene stopper) and propel itself forward.
i love tieis rockietcar!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I just built this without wheels and using a 16oz bottle. I shot it into the air like a rocket but found it only went up about 6ft. However me and my brother then decided to shoot it forwards… new invention-rocket gun!!!
It dos’nt hurt but it does shoot good and is really cool!
BTW 8-10ft range
Enoch
Cool! So glad you enjoyed the experiment. We did used to have a Water Rockets experiment where kids varied the amount of water put into the bottle… so try it and see! 🙂
(We had to remove the Water Rockets experiment because it had a modified nozzle so you could pump it up a LOT and it flew over a football field and got the kids soaking wet. But sadly a kid didn’t read the directions, and didn’t use eye protection and ended up getting hurt, so we were took it down for now, otherwise I’d point you to that experiment. Anyway, put water in and see. Also, what happens if you tip it up (so the nozzle is at the bottom) while you pump?
We found that the slower you pump, the less the car flips. Also, Jeremy wanted to know what would happen when you put water in the bottle. The answer is he got wet. The boys played with this for a while. We used a bicycle pump with a hose, so one boy needed to hold the hose steady so the car had all four wheels on the ground while the other pumped. Great experiment.
Wow! This works really well! Consistently runs all the way across the table!
I used water!!!:)
You can try adding weight, but I am unclear as what is making the car flip over… is the reaction happening too fast, or the cork coming out with enough force so that it flips it over? Don’t worry about “interfering with the experiment”… getting it to not flip over sounds like it’s part of the learning process, too! See if you can observe why it’s flipping over and encourage your kids to problem-solve this issue as well as performing the experiment, just like a real scientist does!
LOL, “I” wasn’t in a drawer with other corks, the stopper was. Sorry typing too fast.
We did the experiment and the car flips over immediately after the stopper releases. Is there anyway to keep the car on the ground and moving forward? We were considering a counter weight inside but we were not sure if that object would come out too with the pressure or interfere with the experiment.
Oh, we found a stopper at the Home Depot in the Hardware section. I was in a drawer with other corks. Ask for help if you cannot find it.
Check your hardware store – I was surprised when I found out that even Home Depot carried these for about a dollar.
Where do you find the stopper? Thanks.