Karina Bland
The Arizona Republic
Jun. 24 2008 12:27 pm
Fireworks are illegal in Arizona, but the fire marshal likely wouldn't frown on you launching a few rockets of your own if you use Diet Coke or Alka-Seltzer for fuel.
Staff members at the Arizona Science Center have come up with some creative ways to celebrate a fireless Fourth of July, from an art project that explodes with color to a rocket that flies without any red glare.
Or, you could try some bang-up fun that you'll likely remember from childhood, using Pop Rocks candy and WintOgreen Lifesavers.
Anything that sizzles, pops or sparks counts as home-brewed Fourth of July fun.
Since there's no explosives involved in any of these activities, you won't blow your fingertips off, but you could put your eye out if you're not careful, so it's best that kids have adult supervision.
No red-glare rockets
What you need:
Styrofoam plate
Toilet paper tube
Markers
Tape
35mm film canister (white ones work better than the black ones with gray lids)
Vinegar and baking soda or antacid tablets like Alka-Seltzer
What you do:
Use markers to make a design on the toilet paper tube, which will be your rocket launcher.
Tape the rocket launcher to the center of the plate.
Put the rocket fuel in the film canister. You have two options for fuel: (1) Vinegar and baking soda. Put 1 tablespoon of vinegar into the film canister and add ½ teaspoon of baking soda. Or, (2) Antacid like Alka-Seltzer. Put 1 tablespoon of water into the film canister. Add half of an antacid tablet.
Quickly put the lid on the canister and drop it into the launcher, lid side down.
Stand back!
The rocket typically will launch in 10 to 20 seconds. If it doesn't take off, wait at least a minute before getting close enough to see what went wrong. Usually the lid wasn't on tight enough.
How it works:
The water dissolves the antacid tablet, creating a gas called carbon dioxide. It creates pressure inside the film canister, which builds up until the cap is blasted off, sending the rocket skyward.
Pop Rocks
What you need:
A packet of Pop Rocks candy
What you do:
Just sprinkle them on your tongue
How it works:
Pop Rocks are like other hard candy, with ingredients that include sugar, lactose (milk sugar) corn syrup and flavoring, but they're processed with carbon dioxide, trapping high-pressure bubbles inside. (You can see them with a magnifying glass.) In your mouth, the candy melts and releases the bubbles with crackling pops.
And, no, you won't explode if you mix Pop Rocks and soda. That's just an urban legend.
Filter fireworks
What you need:
Round filter paper (like a coffee filter... only thicker)
Scissors
Small plastic cup
Black water-soluble pen
Pipe cleaner
What you do:
Use the black pen to mark a dot in the center of the filter paper. Draw a circle of dots around the dot in the middle of the paper.
Use the scissors to cut a piece of pipe cleaner about 2 inches (5 cm) long.
Fill the plastic cup about halfway with water.
Carefully push the pipe cleaner into the hole in the center of the filter paper at the black dot, creating a sort of flower.
Place the filter paper and pipe cleaner on top of the plastic cup, with the pipe cleaner hanging in the water. (Be careful not to get the filter paper wet yet.)
As the pipe cleaner gets wet, the water will slowly crawl up to the filter paper and start to get it wet, too. Watch as the black ink explodes into many different colors on the filter paper. Take the paper and the pipe cleaner off the cup of water when the fireworks design is about half the size of the paper. Set your paper some place safe to dry.
How it works:
The color black isn't black at all but a whole bunch of colors mixed together, says LeAnn Gast of the Arizona Science Center. This technique of color separation is called "chromatography." The ink dissolves in the water and moves in between the paper fibers where it is separated into as many as six or seven bands of color.
Soda Geyser
What you need:
A roll of Mentos candy mints
Two-liter bottle of diet soda (diet or regular soda works, but diet soda is less sticky for an easier clean-up)
What you do:
Go outside, preferably in a big yard or open field.
Carefully open the bottle of soda. Set it on the ground so it won't tip over.
Unwrap the whole roll of Mentos, and drop all of the Mentos into the bottle of soda at the same time.
(This is trickier than it looks. Try rolling a piece of paper into a tube to hold the stacked Mentos and position it directly over the mouth of the bottle. Or, go to www.stevespanglerscience.com to buy The Geyser Tube for $4.95, which includes a pack of Mentos. Steve Spangler is the Colorado science teacher who made this experiment so famous on the Internet.)
Get out of the way!
How it works:
There's actually quite a debate on exactly why it works, but the prevailing theory is that the uncolored and unglazed Mentos mint candy provides nucleation sites - or microscopic nooks and crannies - that help carbon dioxide bubbles form and escape rapidly.
Candy sparklers
What you need:
A roll of WintOGreen Lifesavers candy
What you do:
Go into a dark room where there's a mirror.
Wait until your eyes adjust and you can see your teeth in the mirror.
With your lips open so you can see your teeth, chew a Lifesaver while watching your mouth in the mirror for tiny blue sparks.
How it works:
This is called "triboluminescence," or the mechanical generation of light. Certain chemical bonds will generate light energy when the molecules are torn apart by mechanical crushing. Wintergreen contains some of these bonds. No other flavor of Lifesavers will work.
Some activities for younger kids:
Confetti Parachute
What you need:
A plastic bag
String
Small plastic action figure or doll
Confetti
What you do:
Cut a 10-by-10 piece of plastic from the bag.
Tie a piece of string to each corner of the plastic and tie all four strings to the plastic toy.
Place a small mound of confetti - preferably red, white and blue - in the parachute and fold it into a small square, leaving the toy dangling.
Toss into the air, and when the chute opens, the confetti will float down.
Blown away by fireworks
What you need:
Red, white and blue paint
Black construction paper
Straws
What you do:
Put a quarter-sized blob of red, white and blue paint on black paper.
Let children use straws to blow the paint out from the center to resemble fireworks.
Party pinwheel
What you need:
Square of paper of any size
Pencil with eraser
What you do:
From the four corners, cut toward the center, stopping about two inches form the middle.
Pin every alternate flap down at the center using a thumb tack.
Push the tack into the top portion of the eraser on a pencil.
Noise maker
What you need:
Two sturdy paper plates
scissors
glue
dried beans or plastic beads
curling ribbon
stickers, markers, construction paper and other decorative items
What you do:
Place one plate on the table and put a handful of beans or beads on it.
Put glue along the edge of the plate, and place the second plate on top to form a saucer.
Decorate the outside with stars cut out of construction paper.
Staple or glue ribbons to the edges.
Liberty Shaker
What you need:
Toilet paper tube
Small bells
Two 1 ½-inch wide cardboard circles
Clear acetate or report folder
Colored tape
Sticker stars
What you do:
Fill the tube with a dozen or so small bells and seal the tube by taping the cardboard circles to each end.
Cut a 6- by 20-inch rectangle from a clear report folder or clear acetate and fringe the 6-inch edges by making a series of 8-inch-long cuts. Attach sticker stars to the fringe.
Wrap the rectangle around the tube so that the fringe extends from the ends, and secure it with tape.
Then your child can decorate the shaker with colored tape stripes and more sticker stars.
Details: www.familyfunmagazine.com
