Alpha science classroom：DIY Own Cotton-Ball Launcher

The rubber band pushes the object moves forward and provides the best power to the object. What has a child ever fired from a rubber band? Today, Alpha Science Classroom and children make a DIY cotton ball launcher together, through these simple kid's science experiment activities, children can explore the knowledge behind the physical science experiments, unravel the rules of the energy of the movement of objects and become the most powerful physicist.

Alpha science classroom: DIY Own Cotton-Ball Launcher Materials

• Short pencil or Popsicle stick

• Two thin rubber bands

• Two empty toilet paper tubes or one empty paper towel tube cut in half

• Packing tape or another strong tape

• Scissors

• Cotton balls

• Yardstick

• Ruler

• Three pieces of paper

• Partner

• Single-hole puncher (optional)

Alpha science classroom: DIY Own Cotton-Ball Launcher step

Step 1: First, Children collect the materials in a clean, open area. Use your ruler to measure the distance of three yards, and use a piece of paper to mark each yard. Put your ruler in the first yard. This will be your launchpad. What size cotton ball do you think you can launch?

Step 2: Children carefully cut a toilet paper tube in half lengthwise with scissors. Squeeze the roll to make it narrower (about half the original diameter), and then secure it in place with tape.

Step 3: Children use scissors or a hole punch to make two holes in the thin tube. (If you use popsicles, use scissors to make narrow holes in the same shape as the popsicles.) Make these holes opposite to each other, half an inch from the end, so that you can poke the pencil or popsicle all out. The way through the pipe.

Step 4: Children carefully push the pencil or popsicle stick into the hole. On your second toilet paper tube, cut two slits at one end of the tube, about a quarter of an inch long and the other half an inch.

Step 5: Children cut two more cuts on the same end of the pipe directly on the opposite side of the first two pipes. Carefully pass a rubber band through the gap on one side so that it hangs from the cardboard sheet in the middle.

Step 6: Children put a piece of tape on the slit to reinforce the cardboard tab, and put another rubber band through the slit on the other side of the tube. After completion, a rubber band should be hung on both sides of the test tube.

Hold the rubber band tube so that the rubber band is at the top, and slide the thinner tube into the wider tube with the pencil end at the bottom.

Finally, children carefully wrap the end of each rubber band around the pencil and hold the transmitter so that the pencil is at the bottom. Place the cotton ball on the top so that it is placed inside the thinner tube.

Children turned to the launch pad and stood near the zero ends of the ruler. Now that you have built the launcher, how far do you think the cotton ball will fly?

Children hold the transmitter slightly horizontally (do not drop the cotton ball). Ask your partner to place the ruler next to the transmitter.

Children pull the pencil back so that the inner tube protrudes two inches from the back of the transmitter. Carefully aim the cotton ball at the person (away from the person).

Loosen the pencil and watch the cotton ball fly! Use your ruler to measure the distance traveled by the cotton ball. When did the cotton ball travel the shortest distance? When will it go the farthest?

Alpha science classroom: DIY Own Cotton-Ball Launcher Scientific principles

The Alpha science classroom hopes that in this activity, children will understand how the two energies you use are how to load and launch cotton balls. When the children draw the pencil back on the pencil with the cotton ball, you are adding potential energy to the system. The more the children pull the pencil back, the more potential energy is stored. When you release the pencil, the energy becomes moving, and the cotton ball should have been flying in the air!

The farther the children retreat to the transmitter, the more potential energy you add to the system-the more times you store, the more kinetic energy should be released when shooting a cotton ball. As a result, the farther you pull the transmitter back, the farther the cotton ball should go. This is the simple knowledge of mechanics in simple physical science.

Is the Cotton-Ball Launcher made by the children very interesting? Children can set several goals with their toys and try to beat them! Today's kid's science experiment in Alpha Science Classroom is over. We believe that the children also learned interesting knowledge from the children's physical science experiment, so go and make more Cotton-Ball Launcher with your partners!

Or go to Alpha Science Toys, choose your favorite physical science experiment kit for kids and discover more about the mysteries of science!