Energy level: 2 / 10
Cost: $6 (vinegar and baking soda; the rocket was a gift).
Thing 1 got a rocket for his birthday last year. It sat in his closet until he rediscovered it recently.
The rocket gets its propulsion from a familiar chemical reaction -- the CO2 released when you combine vinegar and baking soda. We headed off to the supermarket to buy our fuel then went to lower Hume Park in New Westminster to launch it.
Conditions were perfect, and there were not too many innocent bystanders. We organized our equipment and made sure we looked stylish for the "before" photo.
You pack the baking soda into the base of the rocket, pour vinegar into rocket, push the rocket down on the base, shake two or three times, set it upright then run!
Our first few attempts fizzled. The baking soda plus vinegar reaction was obviously taking place, but all we saw was bubbles fizzing out the side. We had to tighten some seals and try again a few times before our first successful launch -- a modest two meters.
After some trial and error we realized that we had to thoroughly clean the base of the rocket before pouring in more baking soda. There was often a gooey mixture of baking soda and vinegar left. The vinegar would quietly react with the fresh baking soda before we really intended the reaction to start.
Our most successful launch was perhaps five meters high. We all took turns shaking the chemicals and placing the rocket ready to launch.
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