🧪 Science with Sarah: Film canister rockets

👉 Watch the video of Sarah’s science experiment at San Antonio Christian School here!

Hello parents, teachers and students! This fun at-home rocket is surprisingly simple.

Be sure to check out GMSA@9 on Wednesdays when Meteorologist Sarah Spivey does the demonstrations and explains the science behind it.

HERE’S WHAT YOU’LL NEED

• A film canister...you can snag some at Amazon
• Water
• Alka-Seltzer tablets
• Eye protection

DO THE EXPERIMENT

• STEP 1: Fill a film canister 1/3 up with water
• STEP 2: Pop in an Alka-Seltzer tablet and quickly close the lid
• STEP 3: Quickly flip over your rocket so that the lid is face-down on a table or floor
• STEP 4: Step back and wait for your rocket to soar (it may take a second...)

HOW IT WORKS

This experiment is a wonderful example of Newton’s Third Law of Motion...”for every action (force) in nature there is an equal and opposite reaction.”

The Alka-Seltzer creates a lot of gas when it interacts with water. With the cap on the film canister, all of that extra gas builds up and eventually escapes from the weakest part of the canister...the lid. The gas pushes down on the ground, and sends the canister flying.

SCIENCE WITH SARAH

If you’d like Sarah and David to come to your school and conduct a science experiment live on KSAT, fill out this form. “Winners” are selected at random.