This is one of my favorite projects. It’s fun, cheap, hands on, and educational. My brothers taught me how to make them when I was about nine years old, but I suspect it originally dates to a time when young boys carried everything they needed in their pockets: Matches, a bit of wire, and a foil gum wrapper. Over time bits of wire gave way to paper clips and pins, and gum apparently doesn’t come in foil wrappers any more, so we’ll make do with regular aluminum foil. Here’s the full how-to with a about two dozen rocket launches included because I was having too much fun.
Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, TinyGO, or even use the Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.
Have an amazing project to share? The Electronics Show and Tell is every Wednesday at 7:30pm ET! To join, head over to YouTube and check out the show’s live chat – we’ll post the link there.
Biohacking — Vitamin-C + Gelatin for Accelerated Recovery
Python for Microcontrollers — See you at Supercon, Python #2 language on GitHub and more! #Python #Adafruit #CircuitPython #PythonHardware @circuitpython @micropython @ThePSF @Adafruit
I made match rockets as a teen. There is an optimum amount of foil – too much and the rocket is too heavy, too little and the foil cannot contain the gas pressure. Wooden matches are too heavy to fly very far. A paper match can fly 20-30 feet.
I made match rockets as a teen. There is an optimum amount of foil – too much and the rocket is too heavy, too little and the foil cannot contain the gas pressure. Wooden matches are too heavy to fly very far. A paper match can fly 20-30 feet.
Have fun, be safe.
This was my absolute most favorite thing to do when I was a kid! I can’t wait until my sons are older to do this with them.