Tuesday 20 October 2009

Balloon Rocket

Tuesday, October 20th, 2009
Teacher had a balloon (actually, she had a rocket one and an ordinary balloon - they both work in the same way). She wanted us to fly the balloon straight to her. Some of us tried, but it was impossible. We looked round the classroom to see if there is anything going all the way across the classroom that could help us get the balloon to her. We decided that we should use string and a straw - they are both long and straight. Teacher put the string (she used thread) through the straw, and two of us held either end for her. Teacher blew up the balloon and taped the balloon to the straw. We counted down 10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 Blast off! and let go the balloon. It zoomed across the classroom. We were wondering if the balloon could fly uphill, so one of us sat on a chair, holding the thread, while the other stood (carefully) on the table. Sure enough the balloon was happy to fly uphill. We noticed that the air coming out the end of the balloon causes the balloon to fly in the opposite direction. We really loved this investigation!

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