The Royal Institution
Whoosh bottle explosive science experiments. Watch as Andy takes to the prep room to make a whoosh rocket with a water bottle and some ethanol.
Subscribe for regular science videos: http://bit.ly/RiSubscRibe
Andy investigates how much thrust his water cooler rocket can generate. He finds out how to make a rocket with ethanol, propanol, and methanol and a large water container. But how powerful is the rocket? Can a bottle rocket propel a person? Or can it only make its own weight move? Andy experiments in the lecture theatre.
The blue flame you see at first is a sign of complete combustion – when abundant oxygen reacts with the fuel, producing just the classic combustion products of carbon dioxide and water. As the oxygen supply is consumed, carbon particles start to be released, which cause the yellow flame. The pulses of flame that appear in the bottle towards the end of the reaction are probably created as fresh oxygen is drawn in from the top, and mixes with the remaining fuel. Watch amazing slow motion footage of the explosion.
This beautiful experiment is also a great example of a simple rocket; a device for creating force by pushing the products of fuel combustion in one direction. Andy takes to the lecture theatre to investigate whether the force is enough to push him on a swing. He tries to determine how much force is being generated, and experiments with different fuels. He experiments with ethanol, methanol and propanol to find out how to make the best bottle rocket.
Subscribe for regular science videos: http://bit.ly/RiSubscRibe
The Ri is on Twitter: http://twitter.com/ri_science
and Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/royalinstitution
and Tumblr: http://ri-science.tumblr.com/
Subscribe for the latest science videos: http://bit.ly/RiNewsletter
Our editorial policy: http://www.rigb.org/home/editorial-policy
Source
So was that ending a demonstration of how a space ladder works. XD
lol that ending was the best i giggled for minutes
Methyl hydrate (gas line antifreeze) works really well as a fuel… as well….
I love the ending 🙂
I loved it.
Not conservative with the amount of camera angles, very nice! 🙂
I had a professor who would do a demo similar to this using a 2 liter bottle and shaking in then draining off liquid oxygen. I think he stopped after the bottle clocked a student near the back of the hall.
You guys need more videos like this one.
All I wondered was how it is possible to pronounce the "S" in Mass correctly, but fail on the "Sh" in Blue-ish ?
When you see how simple it is its a wounder we didn't make it it space sooner, all we needed was a pulley on the moon and a bit of string!
so I can do this in some one else's home and you're okay with that …
I thought you couldn't see methanol burn. They always mentioned it at Nascar events or they used to at least when I was watching it on tv. You would sometimes see drivers getting out of the cars and roll on the ground just in case they were on fire, but couldn't see it.
I once did this with a large (1 gallon?) juice container,using a propane torch. The bottle shot across the apartment,bounced off a wall,and continued down the hallway at a high rate of speed. The skin on the back of my hand was painfully scorched…it was almost worth it. Loads of fun,but be careful.
I knew NASA was up to no good. I just can't figure out how they got a pulley into orbit…
Nice one, I used to do this a lot when I was a kid 🙂
Liina is cute!
We used to do this in college (in the late '70s) with glass jugs (didn't have plastic ones at the time). We used rubbing alcohol and we'd drop a match down the neck. We called them "whoof" jugs because that's the sound they made.
Your water is supplied by ISIS??
– Haha, of course not, but I couldn't help notice it is branded as such… 🙂
What about you try to power a rocket with liquid nitrogen? That would certainly look really awesome. XD
pardon me but I could not notice the beautiful lady at the end
liina thanks for rocket sounds 🙂
Do this experiment with a pure oxygen and fuel mixture.
Awesome video you made
Why the dose his bottle say ISIS
If the "heavier" vapors were mixed with a proper amount of oxygen how would it affect speed and duration? My guess is that the smaller molecule would combine faster and shorter creating greater velocity for a shorter time, while the larger molecule would combine slower and last longer. Thanks for the nice video.
"Additional Rocket Sounds" hehehe.
i love how he gets paid for what i do with pop cans and a lighter lol
they will have to add a pulling rope to their rockets to send them up to outer space ha ha ha it was fun to figure it out!
What if the bottle had a small resivoir of ethanol in it, and a small intake hole in the side without the exhaust
Ahahaha those credits:
"Additional Rocket Sounds"
Please combine propenol with pure oxygen ?
I used to make tennis ball launchers from the cans they came in . Fun stuff .
Love the cute nerd blonde at the end 🙂
I've always thought dimethyl ether would be good for this demo.
I used to live in an area that has a lot of methane in our water and you could do this with the water that came out of our faucet.
Nice! One thing, though. To demonstrate the difference in fuels a bit more dramatically, why not strap the bottle to a skateboard, place it on a confined track, and measure the relative distance traveled with each type of fuel?
Put your goggle back on Mamery. And on your eyes not the top of your head you plonker xD
nice ending 😀
What if you also put a bit of water in it? Would it go faster?
4:46 fail 😀
1:49 Not a rocket but an example of valveless pulsejet combustion
Watch my video
the best i've ever watched
U can do it with the gas from the torch