If you are using water rockets in your teaching this year, you might be interested in the following. Thanks to a friend of mine, I went to Jaycar and purchased a Aquapod Bottle Rocket Launcher. Unlike other commercial launchers, the Aquapod has a remote trigger (picture a long piece of string) – which means that there is no danger that a curious student is looking down at the ‘rocket’ (a 2 litre plastic soft drink bottle) when it lifts off. That is always a worry of mine. It works as advertised and is just plain fun. The blurb from the Jaycar website is below. There is also a couple of Youtube video clips which show you the launcher in action.
(From the Jaycar website) ‘Aquapod Bottle Rocket Launcher http://www.jaycar.com.au/productView.asp?ID=GT3014
The Aquapod is the most exciting and safest bottle rocket launcher ever. All you need is a common bike pump and any 2 litre plastic soft-drink bottle with a bit of water in it. Not only does the Aquapod launch a bottle up to 100 feet in the air, but no other launcher out there has a built-in safety valve that releases pressure at 60psi in order to keep everyone safe from over-pressurizing the launcher. The Aquapod is built to last with high quality durable plastic.
