Film Canister Rockets

Many of our students are very, very, very interested in explosions, so we will be tinkering with film canister rockets. Film canisters are not very common these days -- I had to explain what they were the first time I mentioned them to my students -- but I was able to collect many from a friendly photo developing store.

Here are some good links to start researching:

1. Science Kiddo - Film Canister Rocket
2. PBS Kids - Film Canister Rocket
3. Imagination Station - Film Canister Rocket

These web pages all describe demonstrations, but we will want to turn them into experiments by changing only one thing and see what the effect is.

Some questions we may want to answer:

1. What different types of fuel can we develop? What is the least expensive, most powerful fuel we can find?
2. What is the effect of temperature?
3. What is the effect of structural items on the rocket, such as fins and a nose cone?
4. What is going on that makes the rocket go up?

Here's another type of rocket we can maybe try too:

Tea bag rocket