What is the best fuel for a bottle
rocket?
By
Nicolas
Gerlein
Rocket Fuels
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Dry Ice.
Water Pressure
Mentos with Soda
Baking Soda
Why?
• Well, sometimes I am really bored, so after
this I can just say “Hey! I’ll go make a bottle
rocket”. Also, I like chemical reactions.
Newtons Third Law
• For every action there is an equal and
opposite reaction
Materials
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6 1 liter plastic bottle
I bag of Dry Ice
2 pack Mint Mentos
6, 2 liter bottles of Diet Coke
1 small box of Baking Soda
2 cans of Vinegar
Water
Bicycle Wheel Inflator
Camera
Stopwatch
Corks
A metal tube (launcher)
Scissors
Hypothesis
• I think that the dry ice rocket will have the
most hang time due to the fact that the dry
ice becomes a gas very quickly which builds
the pressure inside the bottle.
General Procedure
• We began by building the bottle rockets. It
was just a bottle with a cork. We tested each
one in our front lot with 2 tests of each rocket.
We timed the amount of time in the air, which
is how we determined which is the best
rocket. We would insert the different
materials needed for each bottle rocket, cork
it put it in the launcher and run.
Dry Ice Rocket
• The reason it goes up is because of
sublimation.
• Sublimation is the transition of a substance
directly from the solid phase to the gas phase
without passing through the intermediate
liquid phase.
• The pressure that is formed inside the rocket
fuels it to go up.
The dry ice
Soda and Mentos Rocket
• The foam is created because of the tiny holes
in the surface area of the Mentos.
• These holes allow the carbon dioxide to form
into tiny bubbles which creates pressure.
• The pressure, in theory, lifts the bottle into
the air.
Soda and Mentos Reaction
Water Pressure Rocket
• It works when you add the air to the half
water filled rocket using the pump to pump air
through a hole in a cork, it creates a bubble
that pressurizes the air volume in the top of
the bottle. The compressed air shoots the cork
off which in turn lifts the bottle up into the air.
Baking Soda and Vinegar Rocket
• What actually happens is this: the acetic acid, which is
what makes vinegar sour reacts with sodium
bicarbonate, the compound that's in baking soda to
form Carbonic Acid. It's really a Double Replacement
Reaction. The Carbonic Acid is unstable, and it
immediately falls apart into carbon dioxide and water.
It is a Decomposition Reaction. The bubbles that come
from the reaction come from the carbon dioxide
escaping the solution that is left. That fuels the rocket.
• It goes up in the air by using the pressure to blow off
the cork.
Baking Soda Rocket
substances
1/2 bottle water and compressed air
1/4 bottle water and compressed air
Vinegar and Baking Soda
Mentos and Diet Coke
Dry Ice and Water
time 1
Time 2
2.8
2.87
1.39
0
2.5
Average
1.57
2.185
2.88
2.875
2.89
2.14
0
0
3.29
2.895
Observation
Conclusion
• Due to the information that we got in the
tests, the dry ice was the best rocket fuel with
the most time in the air
Safety
You should never handle dry ice alone. It can
deal out very painful burns (which is an
oxymoron if you ask me) if you are not careful.
Please have a parent supervising.
Do not try this at home!!!!!!
Water Pressure though and the other ones are
perfectly safe, but please have parent
supervision.