Welcome to Steve Spangler Science. Skip directly to: main content, navigation, search box.

Tea Bag Rocket A great after dinner science stunt using a tea bag and matches
print this page

Tea Bag Rocket

1 2 3 4 5

Rating:5/5 (2 Reviews)

Read More | Submit Review

The Tea Bag Rocket is really an adaptation of a classic science demonstration called the Ditto Paper Rocket. If you're old enough to have experienced Ditto paper, you'll recall the bluish-purple ink and that unforgettable smell of freshly printed copies. (Come to find out... both the Ditto machine solvent and the ink were highly toxic, but no one seemed to care back then.) Each piece of Ditto paper had a sheet of tissue paper that separated the two-part form, and it was this discarded piece of paper that kids used to make the "rocket." Since Ditto paper is a thing of the past, science teachers found a simple replacement - a tea bag.

This demonstration requires adult supervision.

Materials

  • Tea bag
  • Dinner plate
  • Matches
Tea Bag

After watching this demonstration, you'll probably rename it the Ball of Ashes Rocket.

  1. Open the tea bag wrapper and unfold the tea bag.
  2. Cut off both ends and empty out the tea leaves
  3. Form the bag into a cylinder that is able to stand on it's end.
  4. Place the tea bag tube on a dinner plate
  5. Light the top of the tea bag with a match and watch the flame burn down
  6. When the tea bag tube has burned down to the very bottom, the ashes will lift off into the air.

How does it work?

Everyone knows that hot air rises and this experiment demonstrates that idea as well as the principles of convection currents.  As the tea bag burns, hot air is being created, as well as a thermal, or convection current, under the bag.  When the tea bag burns down into a small enough ball of ashes, the convection current causes it shoot up in the air.

awesome

cole mcpherson    -  February 21, 2010

1 2 3 4 5
This user gave 5/5 stars


hey im a 5th grade student in california who thought this was the best science project ever!!!!!!!!!!!

OOOhhhhh AAAAhhhhh

Becky T Tampa, FL   -  January 5, 2010

1 2 3 4 5
This user gave 5/5 stars


This worked great! The tea bag rocket was easy to do, and the concepts that I tied to the experiment were centered around energy: heat, pressure, convection. Kids loved it,they immediately wanted to do other tests (what happens when you light both ends, can you light the bottom, etc.) Their minds started working, they learned science, all around great idea!

Best Sellers