Single mother in need of explanation

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Dumb_Blonde - 13 Mar 2007 23:03 GMT

Thank you in advance for your time. I found a neat project to do with
my 14 year old son, but would like to know the science behind it so it
will be educational.

Here is the video link.

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/470767/firecracker_rocket_project_experiment/

It is a fire cracker experiment, and I know he will love it, but I am
clueless as to how this makes my car run.

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janek.lb - 14 Mar 2007 13:32 GMT

> Thank you in advance for your time. I found a neat project to do with
> my 14 year old son, but would like to know the science behind it so it
[quoted text clipped - 6 lines]
> It is a fire cracker experiment, and I know he will love it, but I am
> clueless as to how this makes my car run.

Hello,

I am by no means an expert on car engines but I believe the relevance
here is as follows:
What drives your car is a piston that moves up and down a cylinder.
Here, the cylinder is the larger can and the piston is the smaller can
with the firecracker. The way the piston moves in a car is that fuel
is injected at one end of it and a spark is created to ignite it.
This causes a small explosion with a lot of pressure. This pressure
causes the piston to move down the shaft of the cylinder. The same
principle applies here, where the firecracker created the explosion
and the resulting pressure sent the can flying up in the air.

I hope that helps, I'm sure some more professional explanations will
follow :)
Good luck with the experiment

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Natural Science Forum / Physics / Particle Physics / March 2007

Single mother in need of explanation