Calibrated Geysers, Isaac Returns, Fizz-Fuel Research!
You’ll explore the Three Laws of Motion using a car that Newton never dreamed of
You’ll power your car with water and air pressure, too… the same laws, different fuels. The key to the soda-power geyser is the Geyser Tube that plunges the candy into the soda pop all at once for a superb burst of foaming fuel every time. Four different nozzles for the Geyser Tube can change the shape and power of the blast of soda, too. When you join the bottle to the car frame, you turn it into a horizontal geyser that spews propulsion onto the track as it speeds the car over the ground. While it’s true that Sir Isaac Newton provided the laws of motion, there’s no reason not to test them to make sure he got it right. You’ll find suggestions for combining plain water and plain air to use as the energy source for your car. The way it’s done is also very simple but the results can be even more eye-popping.
Create an unforgettable learning experience for both you and your child
This STEM Science Kit includes all the materials you need to conduct all 6 experiments, suggestions for take-it-further activities and challenges for 1-3 children per kit. You’ll also receive two activity guides! The young scientist guide has step-by-step instructions for each lab, along with questions, and more challenges. The adult helper gets a guide including all the science behind the labs.
How does it work?
There is some serious science going on in this kit in both chemistry and physics but it’s so much fun to do it that you may completely forget that part of the experience. You identify and test variables to determine the best way to create a powerful geyser in a soda bottle and then control it to propel a car you build. You make several controlled tests and collect the data to test ideas!
jbmckelvey1 (verified owner) –
I was sorry to read Emily’s review below where the product didn’t work. I have tried a lot of different diet sodas and also different pavement surfaces and noticed significant variations in the ability of the “car” to accelerate. Three important factors are: the smoothness of the surface, the surface incline (or lack of it), and perhaps most important…the choice of “fuel”.
While many diet sodas will yield an acceptable stationary geyser, Diet Coke (at room temp or even better a little warm (~ 75 to 85 F) seems to result in the greatest acceleration, regardless of surface.
Emily didn’t mention whether or not is was Diet Coke that she used. If It was not, I highly recommend a retest using Diet Coke. On rougher pavement surfaces, generic colas barely pushed my car.
In our side by side testing, Diet Coke produced a stationary geyser that was as much as 3′ higher than generic diet colas. My suspicion is that Diet Coke has a higher dissolved CO2 content than generic competitors, though it may be some combination of more CO2 and the specific chemistry of Diet Coke.
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