Tag Archives: gravity

chemistry, physics

Rocket fuel and gas

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rocket taking off

Following our success with our air pressure rocket, and Gracie’s suggestion, we decided to make an attempt to create our own rocket fuel to blast a bottle rocket into the air.

The ingredients for the explosion were the usual bicarbonate of soda and vinegar.rocket fuel ingredients

There were a range of predictions as to what would happen when we mixed the two (The main building children have not yet explored this mixture and so had no prior nursery experience to base these predictions on).

“Yass”[mimes blasting off into the air] “Blast Off!”  – Iona

“It might come down,” -Eilidh

“Blast up” – Natalie

“It’s going to blast into space!” – Lauren

The air's going to make it go up!
The air’s going to make it go up!
It's going to fly in the air!
It’s going to fly in the air!

Brandon even wrote his prediction clearly that it would go..

"Go up"
“Go up”

However some of the children showed a great level of awareness and applied it to their prediction (or maybe they could just smell the vinegar soaked into my clothes!

"I think it's going to make mess everywhere!"
“I think it’s going to make mess everywhere!”

“It’ll mess everywhere” -Amy M.

We discussed ways of staying safe (staying well back, only Ailie was to touch the rocket when the bicarbonate of soda was added).

There was a debate about how long it would take to blast off.

“Fast” – Urban                             “3 minutes”- Lauren

“50 minutes” –  James S.     “4 minutes”- Amy M.

Well there were a range of results. Most of the attempts in the morning resulted in gentle fizzing and the plug gently popping out. Not exactly the blast we had hoped for.

“When we put the first one down it didn’t blast off, it just went EVERYWHERE!” – Gabi

“It fell over and poured out.” – Urban

However we had a couple of explosions!

“It exploded!” – Eilidh

It went all up Ailie's sleeve, and her hair and her glasses!"
It went all up Ailie’s sleeve, and her hair and her glasses!”

“It exploded like a bomb!” – James

Lara's observation

Unfortunately the successful rockets were so fast that we couldn’t get a photograph!

So we reviewed the experiment and came up with some ideas on how to improve….

Alf's review

“We need to fix it!”  – Urban

“Make some things that would keep it on.” – Alf

In the end the most successful attempts were made using the plug that the vinegar bottle came with.

wee science meSo why did it blast off (eventually)?

Well the vinegar and bicarbonate of soda reacted and created a gas. The pressure of the gas expanding in the bottle pushed the plug and gas out of the bottle with great force, pushing the bottle into the air!

Isla – “What is a gas?”Thinking scientist

Hmmmmmm

Now there’s a question!

Well we could capture gas in a balloon to let us think about it.

We had to have a wee look at the static electricity generated by the balloon and the effect it has on our hair.

I think we need to have a wee look at balloons and gas next!

Please remember to leave a wee to comment share the learning!

And why not see if you have better luck than I with the rocket? There are various youtube video tutorials telling you how. Let us know how you get on!

physics, weather

Rockets and rain

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wee sad rain cloudWell the weather didn’t listen to our plea. However, a bit of rain never stops science! It certainly didn’t dampen our spirits any.

Due to the weather we neglected our recording in our log book so this post will just be photos of the experiments themselves. Why not ask your child to share their hypothesis and conclusions with you as you share the blog?

“We need to do it outside!” said Nathan on Wednesday and that is exactly what we did. However this added a new force into the experiment – the wind! And one of the rockets had a difference too.

One of the rockets had gotten damaged and the fins had come off. How would it affect the flight?
One of the rockets had gotten damaged and the fins had come off. How would it affect the flight?

“It’s not going to fly as good.” – Kobe

Most of the rockets flew really high outside. The one without fins flew less well so Kobe was right!

But the force applied by the wind was strong too and we lost one of our rockets altogether (it seemed to disappear. We couldn’t see where it went due to the rain!) And 3 rockets were blown onto the roof!

“We need a ladder!” – Heidi

“It’s not safe for a ladder. You might fall off and have to go to hospital!” – Evie

We decided to leave them for now.

So the rockets flew higher outside when there was no roof to bounce off.  But the wind’s force affected the flight and the landing.

The learning wasn’t restricted to the science though. We were reinforcing sequence and order of number as we counted down to blast off.  We developed our negotiation skills and used mathematical language of sequence and order when discussing who’s turn it would be,

“Can I go first?”  – Evie

“Can I be second then?”  – Bramble

“I’ll be third!” -Elise

“I’ll be next, I’ll be after Elise.” -Jude

We had to listen for information when we discussed the safety procedure (ensuring we were “clear for take off”).  We followed instructions to go to the allocated area of the playground and stay safe inside the playground even when the rockets kept getting blown out on to the street despite the temptation to go and fetch them back. That’s not to mention the abundance of comparative size language – “higher, lower, more force, less force,” even “greater force”and as Jude said….

“I think that was a lesser force Ailie”

Ooooft it was a lot of work and not just physically!

But our next steps?

“Let’s make our own rockets to fly! We could make a new force!”

-Gracie

Hmmm a wee visit to Pinterest over the weekend may be in order.

images (7)

 

Have a great midterm break. Our science will start again on Friday (hopefully all dried out by then 😝).

Thank you for your lovely comments. We love hearing about how you and your children are sharing learning at home. If you have any suggestions for experiments and / or improvements to the blog please get in touch.

physics

Fighting gravity

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gravity learning

Since we have explored gravity and how it effects dropped objects (the same regardless of mass) perhaps we should think about what is needed to escape gravity.

In order to do this we need to consider forces.

So we exerted forces on one another with the hula hoops, staying safe of course!

But something unexpected happened! As Lara recorded on the logbook.

Lara recorded that the large force placed on the hula hoop broke it!
Lara recorded that the large force placed on the hula hoop broke it!

“We were learning about force and I had quite a lot of force (it was about 20 million) and the hula hoop burst right open!

Lara told her friends about what happened using the word "force"!
Lara told her friends about what happened using the word “force”!

 

Then we thought about what kind of forces could be made to opposerocket gravity.  Would it need to be a little force or a big force? What difference would the size of the force make? We explored this with our very own rockets!

 

We were in agreement with our predictions:

Elise: “We’ll need a big force”

"A big force"
“A big force”

Of course we needed to stay safe as always!

“We have to watch – it will fall!”: Caoimhe

“We need to stay on gravity.” Ross M.

“We could go somewhere else.”: Harmony

“We could wear an umbrella on our head”: Isla M.

We went with Ryan D and Gracie’s ideas though.

There was a conversation about the best way to exert the force to make the stomper rocket blast off:

Lara: “You push it like this.”[ Demonstrating with her hands].

Ross M: “No you do it with a foot.”

Caoimhe: “You need to put 2 feet on it – look”  [shows the others the picture on the box].

There was some debate over the length of time the rocket would take to fly…

Harmony: “Oh ages – 100 days”

Ryan D.: “25 years”

Elyse: “22”

Ross M.: “100 minutes”

Isla M.: 1 minute

Caoimhe: “50 minutes”

It was a little faster. (In fact it was so fast that the camera couldn’t catch more than a blur!)

We used some of our numeracy skills to help us prepare for blast off. (Counting down helps children understand the sequence of numbers and is the first steps towards subtraction!)

Charlie realised that if you jumped on to the pump you could apply more force. Natalie took a run and jump to get even greater force. Then Euan worked out that he could jump from the step to use gravity to add force!

So the greater the force, the further the rocket would fly.

“Wow – that was a really big force!”: Eve

“If you went slowly it would go a wee bit low.”: Patrick

“Our force made it go up”: Ross M.

We put our hands over the end of the tube tosee what the force felt like.

“So the air pushes it up and up” : Patrick

Sophie applied such force that the rocket jammed and got stuck in the light! We had to get Roseann to bash it out with a big long pole!

So were our predictions right? YES! yes

 (With one exception….  “It was faster.”: Harmony)

The rocket bashed off the ceiling most times so we don’t know how high it could go if nothing stopped it.  To test that we’ll have to go outside!

(I hope it’s dry on Friday!)

fingers crossed

 

Want to extend the learning at home? Here are some very simple ideas to reinforce you child’s understanding of gravity and forces.

Happy experimenting!

physics

What is gravity and why is it not in space?

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Floating astronaut

 

You may have heard and seen onTwitter that the children in the main building have been learning about space recently. Some of this has been by watching clips of Commander Chris Hadfield in the International Space Station

During these clips we have looked at the effect of being away from most of Earth’s gravity, and how this effects daily routines such as washing etc. So we know that little gravity means things float but what does gravity mean on Earth, where it is stronger, and why is it stronger on Earth?

We set out to explore gravity. We started by experimenting to see if all objects are effected the same way – does everything fall?  Do some things fall faster/ slower?

We  chose our objects and made predictions:

Caoimhe chose to compare the ball and the tiny pom pom. Her prediction was that the ball would hit the ground first.
Caoimhe chose to compare the ball and the tiny pom pom. Her prediction was that the ball would hit the ground first.
Caiomhe predicted the ball would land first because "It is bumpy"
Caiomhe predicted the ball would land first because “It is bumpy”

Patrick discovered that it had to be a fair test and that the objects needed to start from the same height and at the same time. His experiment  had to be redone twice over to ensure a fair test!

Caoimhe recorded that the height would need to stay the same.
Caoimhe recorded that the height would need to stay the same.
He predicted the swing would land first as "It's heavier".
He predicted the swing would land first as “It’s heavier”.

 

We tested our hypothesis.

Frazer chose two different sized pine cones. He predicted they would "go together".
Frazer chose two different sized pine cones. He predicted they would “go together”.
"The 2 balls hit the ground first!"
“The 2 balls hit the ground first!”

 

"They fell together"
“They fell together”

But why don’t you have a look at the predictions and experiments themselves! Look at Holly’s prediction and Ryan’s prediction.

Have a look at Lauren’s experiment, Holly’s experiment, Gaby’s experiment, Amy D’s experiment and the experiments of Finn, Brandon, and An, who goes at 2!

 

So what happened?

Maybe we should ask for Ryan’s conclusions, Lyall’s gravity explanation or Isla’s conclusion.

“they all fall at the same time ’cause of gravity!” Eve

We reviewed our predictions:

"I was wrong"
, “I was wrong”

 

"I'll just do a cross because I was wrong"
“I’ll just do a cross because I was wrong”

Then we looked at hankies – two hankies the same should land at the same time – just as everything else right? Wrong! If one was scrunched up and the other flat, the air resistance made a difference, slowing the flat one.

wee science meSo everything fell at the same speed unless the air drag slowed it down. The air drag acts as an opposing force.

 

 

Hmmmm…………. what else could make an opposing force to gravity?

Thinking scientist

 

 

Want to find out more about gravity? Have a look here or here.

Why not try your own experiments and let us know how you get on!