Saturday, March 15, 2008

Eighth Meeting: Nalgenes

On Friday (March 14), the science club met for the first time in 7 weeks (the 7th meeting didn't count) in order to try to break some Nalgene bottles.

We put an Estes model rocket D engine in the first one and ignited it. It smoked a ton, spun around a lot, and ended up with hole burned in one side and some meltiness.

The freshmen took the next one and dropped big rocks on it over a drain. The bottle broke their first rock, but eventually they broke it (and subsequently broke the first bottle some more).

The third one (a smaller variant) we half-buried in the mud of the softball field and filled with another D engine, plus some ethanol. The first engine didn't do enough damage, so we tried again. It got very melty, but actually survived relatively intact. Interesting.

We'll have some video soon...