Steamboat Power or Creating CO2 with Vingar & Baking Sod

Labnut · Post by **Labnut** » Wed Apr 19, 2006 6:20 am

I am doing my science project on steamboat power. I have a metal cigar tube that I have attached to a balsa wood triangular platform. I put about 2 tbsp. baking powder in the tube, then put in some vinegar. My idea was to put a cork with a nail hole in the top of the cigar tube, and then try to place the boat in the bathtub and see if it would be "powered" by the CO2 created by the trapped vinegar and baking soda. Unfortunately, when I added the vinegar to the cigar tube, the entire concoction came bubbling out of the tube faster than I could get the cork on. Does anyone know the right amount of vinegar to baking soda to put in the tube so it won't immediately overflow with bubbles?

deleted-71447 · Post by **deleted-71447** » Wed Apr 19, 2006 8:10 am

You could try to put the baking soda in a gelatin capsules that will gradually dissolve when immersed in vinegar. Alternately, you could construct a barrier between the baking soda and the vinegar, and then break the barrier when you are ready to run the experiment. For example, you could try a variation of this procedure:

Tie a knot in the end of a string.
Hold the tube vertically, open end up.
Lower the knotted end to the bottom of the tube.
Firmly pack baking soda in the bottom 1/3 of the tube, around the string.
Pour melted paraffin wax over the packed backing soda to a thickness of 1/4 inch.
Let wax harden.
Fill remainder of tube with vinegar.
Thread the string through the cork opening.
Place cork in open end of tube.
Pull the string to break the wax seal.

Of course there are other ways to do it. That was just meant as one example of how it could be done.

Labnut · Post by **Labnut** » Thu Apr 20, 2006 4:28 am

Thanks so much. We will try doing that and see if we have better results!

deleted-71447 · Post by **deleted-71447** » Thu Apr 20, 2006 9:31 pm

Good luck! Please let us know how it goes.

deleted-71395 · Post by **deleted-71395** » Fri Apr 21, 2006 11:50 am

My 4-year-old son and I built a very simple steam boat using these instructions:
http://sci-toys.com/scitoys/scitoys/the ... .html#boat

It worked better than I expected, but not as well as the one in their video. Considering how simple it was (soda bottle, copper tube, candle, bathtub), it was a great project.