Rocket Launch

We've been having fun with the Mythbusters Water Kit at J6's request and our most exciting quest has been the "water rocket" which is a rocket powered by good ol' vinegar and baking soda. A lot of it. Pretty clever mechanism for launching which requires precise assembly before shaking and dashing away. We built it on the Saturday that the remnants of Tropical Storm Lee were passing over (which caused absolutely devastating flooding about an hour south of us). J6 had been dying to make it and he understood that even though we had plenty of time to make it, the weather was just not going to allow us to launch it. Dan surprised him by telling him to run and get his rain coat and crocs on- of course we had to launch it just once. Delighted, he ran to get ready and the rest of us joined in. Below is the video of the rocket launching in the steady rain...with my voice over which did get a bit loud as that rocket really took off!
 

Dan keeps the fun at our house throwing out spontaneous activity every now and then.

On a lovely Sunday afternoon we headed to the school yard for unencumbered launching- I have video of that too but all kinds of blogging rules were breached- names and faces making cameo appearances all over the place despite my best effort at making a blog video!

The two pieces to the rocket puzzle

The tube was filled with varying amounts of baking soda depending on how much power you want to give the rocket.

Vinegar gets added to the rocket body.

You have to turn the rocket on its side and carefully insert the tube without allowing the vinegar to mix in with the baking powder. There is a stopper for the end which works well, but you have to be quick!

Always an adventure at our house! Seems like I've been slacking a bit on the blogging recently. We've certainly been doing plenty to blog about. So, this is one of those "catch up" posts.