The bottle rocket kit where students change the variables, measure the flight, and figure out the why. Keep scrolling to launch.
How much water goes in? More mass means more thrust — until it's too heavy to fly.
Pump in more PSI and store more energy. The single biggest factor in how high it goes.
Pointed, rounded, or blunt — three cones in every kit. Shape changes drag, drag changes height.
3-fin or 4-fin configuration. Fins don't add power — they keep the flight straight so power isn't wasted.
Snap on the fin ring, pick a nose cone, fit the launch cork. No glue, no tools — built in under ten minutes.
Fill with water, pressurize with any bike pump, step back 20 feet, and pull the cord. Liftoff.
Track the height with the phone tracker, log it on the waterproof lab sheet, change one variable, and launch again.
Every launch is an experiment students design themselves. Water, pressure, cone, fins — their call.
Real data from real flights, captured with the height tracker and logged like actual engineers.
Newton's laws stop being vocabulary words the moment a rocket clears 100 feet because of a choice you made.
Point your iPhone at the rocket, tap at peak height, and the tracker uses the gyroscope plus a little trigonometry to calculate exactly how high it flew. No extra hardware.
WORKS IN SAFARI ON IPHONE · HEIGHT = DISTANCE × TAN(ANGLE)
Maps to MS-PS2 (Forces & Motion) and MS-ETS1 (Engineering Design). Lab sheets and rubric included.
No glue, no tools, no prep period sacrificed. Kits assemble in minutes and pack flat for storage.
Every part survives launch after launch. One class set runs experiments all year long.
Everything that happens between pulling the cord and the rocket hitting apogee — and the lab sheet to prove you understand it.
Water blasts down, rocket blasts up. Every action has an equal and opposite reaction — your launch is the proof.
Fins move the center of pressure behind the center of mass, so the rocket flies straight instead of tumbling.
After thrust ends, gravity takes over. The rocket coasts to apogee, where vertical velocity hits zero — that's the height you measure.
| Variable | What it changes | Sweet spot | Impact |
|---|---|---|---|
| Water level | Reaction mass — the "fuel" thrown downward | ~⅓ of the bottle (600–700ml) | |
| Air pressure | Stored energy that accelerates the water | As high as your pump safely allows | |
| Nose cone | Drag coefficient during flight | Rounded ogive at bottle-rocket speeds | |
| Fins | Stability — keeps thrust pointed up | 3 fins: less drag · 4 fins: more stable |
TAP A CARD TO REVEAL
Stand a measured distance from the pad. Use the tracker (or a protractor) to read the angle at apogee. Height auto-calculates: h = d × tan(θ)
| Launch | Distance (ft) | Angle (°) | Height (ft) | Variable changed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| #1 | — | |||
| #2 | — | |||
| #3 | — | |||
| #4 | — | |||
| #5 | — |
Checkout is handled by Stripe. Kits ship within 3–5 business days.
Pace it out or measure it. Standing exactly 50 ft away makes the math cleanest.
REQUIRES SAFARI ON IPHONE · CAMERA + MOTION ACCESS