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activity 14:
Radical Rocket
From Becca Tusa, Sasha O' Connor, Ella Cory- Wright, Sarah Grabiner
Ingredients:
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500 mL bottle of fizzy drink (e.g. lemonade)
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Drawing pin
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Smartie
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What to do:
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Take a 500 mL bottle of fizzy drink (e.g. lemonade) outside. Take the lid off the bottle. Place the lid on a sturdy surface and pierce a hole in the lid with a drawing pin. Place towels around the bottle.
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Drop the Smartie into the bottle and quickly screw the lid back on. Stand back and watch the rocket explode!
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Why?
When you open the bottle the carbon dioxide inside the bottle is slowly released. Dropping a Smartie inside increases the surface area where the gas can come out of the drink so the gas is released very quickly. Then if you screw the lid on quickly this large amount of gas is trapped in the head of the bottle. When the head of the bottle is full the only space the carbon dioxide gas can go is through the hole producing a fountain as some of the drink comes out with the gas bubbles.
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