Rockets work by ejecting something out of the back and a so-called ‘reaction force’ then pushes the body of the rocket forward.
Here, water and air are shoved out the back. The water is heavier so that’s what gives the bottle the main kick forwards.
The energy to force the water out is stored as air pressure inside the bottle. You supply the energy as you pump air into the bottle.
The air pressure inside builds up and pushes on the water. But friction holds the cork in place and that pushes back on the water, so for a while nothing moves.
Once the friction force can no longer contain the pressure, the cork is shoved out and the pressure then acts on the water to eject it from the bottle.
Compared to the bottle, the water is heavy. So pushing water out at a moderate speed backwards gives the bottle a lot of forward speed.
It’s the 40th Anniversary of the Apollo landings and there’s a lot of good stuff on the web as we hit the actual anniversary of the launch of Apollo 11 (in about 30 mins time in fact)
WeChoosetheMoon is an excellent recreation of the mission in real-time. With audio and video links to experience the launch as it happened.
You can also follow Apolloplus40 for live tweets (well, as-live)
The Big Picture continues its amazing series of images with a set of pics of Apollo 11. Some awesome images that are well worth storing for the next time you need to teach about the Moon.
This week, BBC One launches Bang Goes The Theory, a brand new series with a hands-on approach to science.
Presenters Jem Stansfield, Liz Bonnin, Dallas Campbell and Dr Yan Wong will pool their knowledge and curiosity to challenge the scientific principles that shape our world. It will include a series of experiments, one of which will see one of the show’s presenters, Dr Yan, being dramatically transported across a 2.5m void via magnetism: a method selected by the general public.
The series, co-produced with The Open University (OU), will be supported by free events and an interactive website. You too can do real science online and at home. It aims to bring all ages together with accessible science that encourages everyone to get their hands dirty. The Bang Goes The Theory blog, which is updated daily, will slowly establish the show — with a series of videos and exclusive pictures that follow the progress of the conception, testing, building and trialling of the contraption. A number of explanatory videos are already online.
Sounds like it could be a fun programme – a slight shame it’s going out right at the start of the school holidays so teachers can’t follow up on it immediately in the classroom.
Keep an eye on the show, and hopefully there will be clips you will be able to use after the Summer break which could be used to spark off exciting science investigations.
Here’s a new site that you might be interested in if you are looking for games to play on your interactive whiteboard: Primary Games Arena
While I’m a little uncomfortable about a site repacking other people’s material on their own site, you can’t doubt there’s a tonne of useful games to be found here.
Personally I think that linking to someone elses resource in this way is depriving the original sites of visitors and in some cases banner ad revenue, so I would always suggest you go and visit the originator of the games to show your appreciation.(and if they have banner ads, click one to help them!)
But with this said, the Primary Games Arena does make it convenient to find games for all subjects and it looks like a future addition will be Schemes of Work searches.
These resources are designed to make primary science teaching fun for everyone, including the teacher! They are easy to download and free to copy for use in the classroom. No special equipment or skills are required for any of the lesson plans or demonstrations. New stuff is added regularly.
Some great ideas here for whole lessons and teacher demonstrations.
