2 L Bottle Rocket Launcher
Rockets Away!
Standards:
3.2.7.A “Explain and apply scientific and technological knowledge”
3.4.7.C “Explain and apply principles of force and motion”
Introduction
The main idea behind this activity is to show the differences in rocket
design, and efficiency. Some balloon activities are included along
with a pressurized bottle rocket launcher, for launching 2L, and 1L
bottles with or without water.
This activity includes a teacher-led manual, and activity booklet,
along with an interactive website:
http://www.ag.ohio-state.edu/~rockets/
Materials
Located in the lab kit entitled Rockets Away, you will find the basics
for this activity. You may want to gather a few extras however:
 Extra 2L bottles
 Long balloons
 Drinking straws
 String (varying lengths)
 Duct Tape
 Scrap Cardboard
Procedures
1. Using the balloons, do various examples of how rockets work
from the “Rockets Away!” booklet, pages 9 and 14.
2. Next there are other activities included that you may wish to try
throughout the booklet.
3. Finally launching of the 2L bottle. Refer to page 17 for detailed
instructions, and follow along with pages 18, 19, and 20.
4. You may also want to try the math to get the height of the
rockets on page 21.
5. There is also an “Altitrak” altitude finder included to also help in
measuring height of the rockets.
6. Finally there is a program on the included laptop entitled
Logger Pr that uses a photogate to measure the height of the
rocket when launched.
Questions
There are various questions throughout the booklet also. You may
chose these, or make some up on your own.