Kids send water-powered rockets into the sky
Noah Farley
POCATELLO, Idaho (KIFI) — Kids were ready to blast off in Pocatello this weekend by making rockets out of plastic bottles, tape, and water for fuel.
Idaho State University’s Physics Department students taught the kids a little about physics and showed them how to build their own water-powered rockets.
“We go over Newton’s laws and how they go into having a really good water rocket, and they build rockets and they can launch and then rebuild, launch again. And it’s just a whole lot of really fun summer fun with some science,” said ISU Physics Professor, Steven Shropshire.
After filling the plastic bottle rocket a third of the way with water, its opening is placed over a nozzle. Pressurized air forces the rocket upward, and the fins attached to the rocket stabilize it so it can soar across the sky.
The kids loved seeing how fast, far, and high they could send their rockets.
“They’re really smart kids. I noticed they have a pretty solid basic grasp of the of the physics behind it,” said ISU Student, Noah.
Shropshire says this annual event is a fun and interactive way for families to learn about science.