Energy & simple inventions

Would you like to make a baking-soda motorboat? Well, it’s not listed as a sustainable energy, but it works fine in your kitchen. This is how you do it.

You will need

One plastic, Styrofoam or bamboo plate (e.g. the packaging tray for dried fruits)
One plastic cap of a bottle
One straw
Electrical tape
Baking soda
Vinegar

To build the boat

Cut the plate into a triangular boat shape
Cut the straw into 5 cm lengths
Tape the cap of the bottle along with the two straw pieces onto the plate as you see in the picture

Power it

Place your motorboat on water
Fill the lid with baking soda
Carefully pour in vinegar and watch as your boat is powered across the water!

This may not power a boat across the ocean, but simple experiences like this lead talented teenagers to do more and more experiments at home. Eventually they come up with real inventions. Did you know that there are many green inventions that have been made by teenagers? You can check this out at www.greenoptimistic.com. Here is a summary of the discoveries of energy made by man since the discovery of fire: