How to Make a Tea Bag Rocket
What You Need
- A tea bag
- A flat dinner plate
- A lighter
4 Steps to Make a Tea Bag Rocket
- Take a tea bag, and empty its contents. Now open the staple pins, label and strings on the tea bag, and lay it flat, with both ends open. Roll it into a cylinder and make it stand straight on a dinner plate.
- Be careful or ask for your mom’s help now. Using a lighter, ignite the top of the cylinder. Carefully and from a slight distance, observe the fire quickly burn up the cylinder.
- 3..2..1! Kaboom! Lift off!
- The tea bag zooms up!
How did that happen?
There are three principles at work here. First, the flame heats up the air that is contained inside the cylinder. The molecules move quicker and spread further apart. The outside air is denser than the inside air of the cylinder. So, the less dense, warmer air rises above the more dense, outside air.
Also, the space created by the less dense air within the cylinder lets the denser outside air push the hot air upwards. This is called a convection current.
Finally, when the tea bag burns, there is smoke formed which dissipates. The cylinder which has reduced to ash is forced to rise up by the heavier hot air; which is also rapidly rising up.
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