Water Bottle Rocket: Video 4

Kids and I build a water bottle rocket this afternoon... first few attempts were duds... until we worked the kinks out. Wow ... what a blast. Materials: Wine cork 2 litre pop bottle inflatable needle (like you'd use to inflate a basketball) air compressor water plastic pipe How we did it: The plastic pipe is the base - you need to cut a hole in it big enough to insert the end of the air compressor Take a wine cork and cut it in half Insert a "inflatable needle" into the cork - it needs to stick out past the end of the cork. Wrap some duct tape around the cork (this was the missing step from earlier failures) - the duct tape creates a tight seal. You may not need to do this if the cork creates a tight seal on its own Fill a 2 litre pop bottle about 1/4 full of water Insert the cork - through the hole in the pipe stand - and into the 2 litre pop bottle Turn the compressor on and GET BACK. The rocket always went the same direction (straight up) but I had the kids behind a cardboard "blast shield" just in case. Best part of the project, the total cost was $0 -- as we just made use on material around the house.