Want to see a real sugar high? Launch a model rocket with Oreo cookies
Posted 05.08.2006 at 2:00 am
17 Comments
by Mike Walker
A rocket speeds away, fueled by an oxidizer and Oreo cookie filling.
Mike Walker
A king-size Snickers has 541 Calories. That's Calories with a capital "C," or 1,000 lowercase calories. A small-"c" calorie represents the energy required to heat one gram of water by one degree Celsius. So that Snickers could theoretically heat a gram of water 541,000 degrees or, more realistically, bring a gallon and a half of water from nearly freezing to nearly boiling.
The energy in food is typically released when, through a complex biochemical pathway, sugars, starches and fats react with oxygen from the lungs. It's a form of slow-motion burning that, thankfully, rarely involves fire.
But you can liberate the same amount of energy in much less time by mixing the Snickers with a more concentrated source of oxygen—say, the potent oxidizer potassium perchlorate. The result is basically rocket fuel. Ignited on an open fireproof table, it burns vigorously, consuming an entire candy bar in a few seconds with a rushing tower of fire. If you could bottle the energy of kids playing and turn it into a Molotov cocktail, this is what it would look like.
Of course, you can't actually fire a rocket with a Snickers bar; the nuts would clog the nozzle. Oreo cookie filling, however, works very nicely in standard model-rocket engines. (Caution: The Model Rocket Safety Code does not approve of filling rocket motors with highly reactive chlorate-Oreo mixtures.)
The thrust wasn't great, but my chlorate-Oreo rocket did get off the ground—not bad for a half-baked confection. Serious sugar hits like Pixy Stix and Gummi Bears give more power, but true "candy rockets" (yes, that really is a term used in model rocketry) are made with the hard stuff: pure sucrose (table sugar) or dextrose (processed starch). With food-grade potassium nitrate as the oxidizer, the result is high-power rocket fuel that you could feed to the kids—although I don't recommend it.
Click here for video of candy rockets taking to the sky.
ACHTUNG! Theodore Gray is trained in lab safety procedures, so don't try this at home. Find more on Gray's scientific pursuits at periodictabletable.com.
Want to read more articles like this, plus tips and tricks, home hacks, DIY projects, and more? Subscribe to Popular Science today, for less than $1 per issue!
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That's Awesome!
I think I am going to do that right now!
But I will definitely do that away from plants and cars and anything els around.
Rocket food mee ?
Speeding
Where can I get the blocks?
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Cool and beautiful!
How long could the bock trap the lighting ?
0 out of 0 people found this comment helpful
very nice blogs.
thanks.very nice blogs.
thanks.
That's Awesome!
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I'm making my first sugar motor on my own soon. Also... I've tasted rocket candy. It looks like candy but it tingles on the tongue and is kinda salty, but maybe that was just the stuff I had.
its amazing. nice resources.
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Food grade Potassium Nitrate? Doesn't that cause impotence? Where was it that I was reading that a military was sneaking it into their soldiers' food to keep them in line?
Sorry if that was an urban myth, but I know I read it knocks you out /down there/
try chocolate chip cookies
Thanks you very much!
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Food grade Potassium Nitrate? Doesn't that cause impotence? Where was it that I was reading that a military was sneaking it into their soldiers' food to keep them in line?
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Good very post. Deneme
This is so cool. Amazing project.
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thanks for such an informative article, it's been very useful
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why not ground the nuts so that you could still use a snickers bar?
Potassium nitrate is also an organic fertilizer so its quiet safe to eat. Mixed with sugar, it would taste even better.(Which is why its called rocket candy I think)