Science for kids - How to make fizzy bottle rockets - ExpeRimental #16

Make a juice bottle rocket fly through the air with some fizzy tablets and water in this fun science experiment for children.
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Danielle and Michael make explosive rockets fly with the children at an adventure playground. By putting fizzy headache/vitamin tablets into a bottle with a sports cap, they make incredible bottle missiles. As gas builds up inside the bottle, pressure increases until the lid pops. When this happens, the lid pushes against the ground, pushing the bottle upwards. The liquid firing out of the bottle pushes it further, just like the gases coming out of a real rocket.
You can do this free science activity at home with just some bottles and fizzy tablets. If you'd rather not use paracetamol tablets with your children, you can do the activity with fizzy vitamin tablets. Experiment with different types of tablets, different bottle shapes, and the temperature of the water.
This activity was filmed at the Waterside Adventure Playground in Islington. This series of ExpeRimental is supported by the Royal Society of Chemistry.
ExpeRimental, brought to you by the Royal Institution of Great Britain, is a series of free short films that make it fun, easy and cheap to do science at home with children aged 4 to 10. Our films give you lots of ideas for kids' activities that will help you explore the world around you, question and experiment together. We'll show you how to do the activity and how to make sure adults and children get the most out of it. Why not have a go and then tell us what you think on our Facebook page?
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