lighting a tea bag experiment

• 1 tea bag - Note that there are some tea bags that are not suitable for this demonstration, namely those that burn up completely and those that are "glued" together in their middle.
• 1 porcelain plate (or other non-flammable surface)
• Matchbox or lighter
• 1 pair of scissors
• Safety equipment: 1 fire extinguisher

Explanation

• What happens if you light the tea bag somewhere else?
• What happens if you tape several "tea bag tubes" together into a long rocket?

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The flying tea bag.

• + Create new collection

In this activity, students observe an empty tea bag that is set alight. The burning causes a column of hot air and gas from combustion to rise above it due to convection. When the bag is light enough, it will be carried up into the convection current.

By the end of this activity, students should be able to:

• understand the concept of convection

Download the PDF file (see link below) for:

• what you need
• scientific explanation
• references.

Thanks to IOP Publishing for permission to use the attached article, which originally appeared in the IOP journal Physics Education (2004 Vol 39 (1) 22-23).

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Flying Tea Rocket

Launching an empty tea bag reveals the power of density differences and convection currents.

Print this Experiment

The Flying Tea Rocket is an adaptation of a classic science demonstration called the “Ditto-Paper Rocket.” *  Each two-page Ditto master had a sheet of tissue paper separating the two pages. It was this discarded tissue paper that teachers used to make the “rockets.” Since Ditto paper is – thank goodness – a thing of the past, science enthusiasts have found a simpler, albeit smaller, replacement: an empty tea bag.

* Ditto paper was used in schools many years ago (ask your grandparents). It printed purple ink on paper and produced an unforgettable smell from freshly printed copies. Come to find out later, however, that both the Ditto machine solvent and the ink were highly toxic to humans.

Experiment Videos

Here's What You'll Need

Tea bag (full to begin with), nonflammable surface (a dinner plate or shallow pan), matches or lighter, safety glasses, magnifying glass (optional), adult supervision, let's try it.

Use scissors to cut off the top of the tea bag. You don’t need the string and label or any staples on it but you do need to be able to empty the bag.

Empty the contents of the tea bag into the trash. They probably smell pretty good depending on the tea.

Unfold and straighten the empty bag. Open it so that it looks like a cylinder and is pretty straight. It doesn’t need to be perfectly round but it does have to be opened up. Place it upright on the plate or pan.

Light the top rim of the bag on fire all the way around the edge. As you watch it burn, think about what the heat is doing to the air both around and inside the burning bag.

Let the bag burn completely to ash and watch it liftoff the pan and rapidly rise into the air. You should be able to watch it rise quickly and then descend slowly as it cools. If there are any remains, look at them closely to determine what’s in them.

How Does It Work

There are actually three principles at work on the burning paper cylinder that make this activity happen.

First: There’s the density difference between the air inside the cylinder compared to the air outside of the cylinder. As the flames move down the bag, they heat the air trapped in the cylinder. The heat causes the molecules to move very quickly and to spread out inside and above the cylinder. These molecules are much farther apart than those outside the cylinder. That means the air inside the cylinder is less dense than the air outside the cylinder. Warmer, less dense air rises above cooler, denser air.

Second: The burning bag generates hot, less dense air inside it and above it. This leads to a “thermal” or a convection current of rapidly rising hot air above the flames. The larger volume of space generated by the hot rising air inside the cylinder needs to be filled. The cooler denser air outside of the burning cylinder moves in from the bottom to fill the space under the heated air.

Third:  As the bag burns, it becomes both ash and smoke. The hot smoke rises, lifts away, and dissipates into the air. A delicate ash frame of the bag is all that remains but since the ash frame is so lightweight, the force of the rising, hot air is strong enough to quickly lift it upward. As it rises, it cools and then falls back into the dish… if you’re lucky.

Real World Connection

While NASA launch vehicles use rocket propulsion engines to achieve an incredibly powerful vertical “liftoff,” hot air balloons are way more subtle. They use a method similar to your burning tea bag to launch into the cool, morning air. Hot air balloons use a burner to rapidly heat and expand the air inside the balloon. This creates the same air density differences you made with your burning bag. However, in a balloon, there is no mass change like there was in the bag when it turned to ash. That would not be a good thing in a hot air balloon. Instead, the air inside the balloon is heated much hotter than the outside air which creates an envelope of trapped, less dense air within the denser morning air. As a result, the balloon lifts off the ground and rises.

Check out our Solar Bags to see first hand the power of hot, rising air on a large, very visible scale. Two types of the Solar Bag  expand to either 25 or 50 feet (7.6 to 15 m) when inflated. Both harness solar energy to expand and then float into the air. It’s truly a sight to behold as a giant, black “solar sausage” slowly lifts off of the ground powered by nothing but sunshine and controlled by you!

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Make a rocket without rocket fuel and learn about density differences, convection currents, and lift.

In this activity, learners will learn all about density differences, convection currents, and lift. We will make a rocket without rocket fuel! Think it’s not possible? Well, let’s find out! Our tea bag is a thin piece of material that when you light it on fire it burns down and eventually flies up but why does that happen? As the flame burns down the bag, it heats the air inside of the tea bag. The heat causes the air molecules to move quickly and spread out above the cylinder. These air molecules inside are much farther apart than those outside the cylinder. That means the air inside the cylinder is less dense than the air outside the cylinder. Warmer, less dense air rises above cooler, denser air. The flow of rising hot air inside the cylinder creates a convection current of air, generating an upward force called lift. As the bag burns, it becomes both ash and smoke therefore losing its mass. Once the flame has burned to the bottom, the convection current provides enough force to lift the remaining ash into the sky. Learning Time:  5-10 minutes Prep Time:  5-10 minutes Age Range:  All Ages Materials List:  Tea bag (any flavor works), scissors, lighter, plate or pie pan, adult supervision Keywords:  Density, convection currents, lift, air pressure Directions:

• Gather your supplies! You will need a tea bag, scissors, a lighter, and of course adult supervision.
• Head outside and find a table for this experiment.
• Cut off the top of the tea bag. You do not need the label, string, or staples.
• Empty the tea somewhere (extra points if you make a cup of tea with it!)
• Now unfold the tea bag and straighten it out, you will want to open it like a cylinder.
• Set it up straight on a plate or pie pan.
• Now light the top of the bag on fire and step back to watch it take off!

• If there are any remains, look at them closely to determine what’s in them.
• Try different types of teabags. Do they all work the same or do some burn up too much?
• Is this possible to do this with tissue paper?
• Is this possible to do with a roll of standard paper?

Flying Tea Bag: Home Science Experiment

Introduction: Flying Tea Bag: Home Science Experiment

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Flying Teabag Experiment

Make a teabag fly with this easy experiment. A match turns the tea bag into a hot air balloon.

• Tinfoil (put this on the surface where you’re working to cover it)
• Teabags without glue in the middle. Twinings works

Instructions

• An adult should be present during this experiment
• Put a layer of tinfoil on the table to prevent mess
• Open the teabag and cut off the end where the string is attached
• Pour out the tea, shape the teabag into a tall cylinder and place the teabag on the tinfoil
• Hold a match at the top of the top of the teabag so it catches on fire
• The teabag will fly once it is almost entirely burnt down

What happens?

Hot gases are formed when the teabag burns. The gases are lighter than the surrounding air and rise upwards. When there’s just a tiny bit of teabag left, the teabag is light enough to be carried upwards along with these hot gases. Therefore it flies away like a hot air balloon!

Make a teabag fly with this easy experiment. A match turns the tea bag into a hot air balloon. Equipment Tinfoil (put this on the surface where you’re working to cover it) Teabags without glue in the middle. Twinings works Scissors Matches Instructions An adult should be present during this experiment Put a layer of….Click to read more

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Kids Science: Flying Tea Bag Hot Air Balloon

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13 Comments

My kids are fascinated by things that fly , and today I’m sharing the flying tea bag hot air balloon , a fun hands-on flying activity as part of a new STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, and math) series. More on that in a second…

Flying Tea Bag Experiment

This is a quick activity that only requires a fire-safe area and a few supplies you most likely have at home. My husband laughed after he saw the video of this activity (below) because he thought our space was most definitely NOT fire-proof. I disagree, of course, but I will leave it to you to find a safe space for this!

Because there’s some trial and error involved in this activity, it can encourage children to test theories and think like a scientist. See the  Next Steps  section below for ideas on how to extend this activity.

Flying Tea Bag Supplies

• Tea bag (traditional style)
• Dish: Glass or Ceramic
• Matches or Lighter

A Note on Safety

• Be sure that children are supervised by adults.
• Conduct this activity in a fire-safe area. We don’t want anyone setting their house on fire!

Flying Tea Bag Steps

• Cut the tea bag open.
• Pour the contents into a cup and save for later.
• Open the tea bag up and form it into a cylinder.
• Stand the teabag up on the dish.

 Activate the Flying Tea Bag

• Light the top of the cylinder
• Step back and watch it fly!

Watch our Video to see it in action:

Be sure to follow my YouTube channel to be the first to see more videos like this.

What’s happening?

As you probably know, heat rises! Hot air balloons work at lifting a balloon off the ground by making the air inside the balloon hotter, and ultimately less dense, than the air outside. Similarly, this tea bag flying machine lifts off once the fire burns the tea bag into lightweight ash. The rising hot air current lifts what’s left of the bag and blows it into the air.

Next Steps: Full STEAM Ahead

• Ask: What do you think will happen if we light the tea bag on fire?
• Ask: What could have caused the tea bag to lift off the plate?
• Ask: What is it about the tea bag that makes it lift off the ground?
• If it doesn’t work the first time, ask, “what could we try differently?” We initially tested this with a similar technique where we twisted the top of the tea bag. It didn’t work! And my 4-year old found it hilarious.
• Ask: Do you think this would work with a different kind of paper?
• Gather a collection of paper, form them into cylinders, and see if you can make them fly. Some ideas: Newspaper, copy paper, toilet paper. You’ll probably realize that lighter weight paper works best. Why is that?

More Flying Activities

How to Make a Paper Airplane

DIY Straw Rockets

Exploding Diet Coke and Mentos Experiment

DIY Spin Art Machine (we used the flying mechanism from Snap Circuits for this spin art activity)

Activate Learning with STEAM

In that vein, over the next few weeks I’m joining a creative group of engineers, scientists, educators, and artists to launch a new series called STEAM Power, which celebrates interdisciplinary learning with projects that circle around STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, and math) ideas. This week’s theme is FLY , and you can see the other fly-related ideas here:

Dancing Balloons  | Babble Dabble Do

Parachutes | meri cherry, whirly twirly flying birds | left brain craft brain, indoor boomerang  | what do we do all day, paper airplane  | all for the boys, rockets  | lemon lime adventures, m&m’s tube rockets   | frugal fun for boys, steam on pinterest.

You might also enjoy following my STEAM + STEM Activities board on Pinterest for more ideas like this.

[…] Hot Air Balloon from Tinkerlab […]

[…] Rememeber way back when, we did a post on rocket science… well Tinker Lab clocked the flying teabag!!! […]

[…] DANCING BALLOONS / WHIRLY TWIRLY FLYING BIRDS / INDOOR BOOMERANG / ROCKETS / M&M TUBE ROCKETS / ZIP LINE / HOT AIR BALLOON […]

[…] Flying Tea Bag Hot Air Balloon  // TinkerLab […]

I love the expression on your daughter’s face.

I do too, Erica! It was a fun moment for both of us. Thanks for taking time to comment here.

How did you figure this out??! So cool Rachelle! Love the vid.

This trick has been around for ages, and I needed a good excuse to try it out, Meri 🙂

Love this! Your daughter’s face says it all!

Doesn’t it, Ana? We tested it 3 different ways before it worked, and we were both in awe.

[…] A great little hot air balloon science experiment. […]

Love this! My dad used to do this with 4-ply napkins if we ate out – I’d die with embarassment but be amazed and love it all at the same time! He called it Tibetan Fire!

[…] https://tinkerlab.com/kids-science-flying-tea-bag-hot-air-balloon/ […]

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How to Make a Tea Bag Fly

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 materials list .

• Black tea bag
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Flying Tea Bag Easy Science Experiments for Kids Video

Paging Fun Mums

Replacing Insanity with fun!

Magic Tea Bag Rocket

I remember doing this ‘Magic Tea Bag Rocket’ in Science class in Primary School. I loved it then and I still love it now! Now that the kids have grown a little, I thought it was high time I show them this amazing little experiment!

*make sure this is supervised by an adult at all times, is done in an area with no wind & that you have a fire extinguisher on hand.

Check out the easy video tutorial below:

To do this yourself you will need:

Lighter or matches

Take your Tea bag and snip off the top with the scissors, empty out the tea leaves into the bin or a separate container

Unfold the tea bag and hollow it out using your finger

Stand your tea bag upright onto the plate and light both sides with the lighter/matches

Stand back and watch the magic begin!

The kids just loved this and wanted to do it over and over again…I think we went through about 20 tea bags…I bet you find the do the same once you start!

If you liked this activity, then you may also like our:

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12 thoughts on “ magic tea bag rocket ”.

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My kids loved this!! It only seemed to work some of the time though. It worked 3 times of the 7 we tried. Not sure what we were doing wrong but, it was still really fun when it did work 🙂

Wow this was really fun to do thanks for the intertainment

I’m just a Grandma who loves to see the excitement in my grandchildren’s eyes when I do my “magic” with them!

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My 7 year old grandson and i love doing science fun together. this is a great activity and one he likes to explain how it happens.

More of a hot air balloon than a rocket, but that doesn’t make it any less fun. Might try experimenting with leaving the top closed (or folding it closed) and lighting the bottom… you can do something similar outdoors with a small paper bag, but you have to be careful. Do it only on a cool, wet day right after a lot of rain.

Didn’t work for us! I think you have to have a particular type of tea bag! Cool enough to watch your video though!!!

I just tried doing this but mine didn’t float. Is there a particular type of tea bag to use? Thank you

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Make a tea bag rocket

Follow FizzicsEd 150 Science Experiments:

You will need:

• A tea bag that is stapled-A heat pressed sealed bag will not work
• Matches (therefore an adult is a must!
• Non-flammable plate

• Instruction
• Video Instruction

Do this experiment away from your curtains or anything else flammable. SAFETY FIRST!

Cut the top of the bag to remove the staple.

Pour the tea leaves onto the plate and flatten them out.

Open up the teabag so that it forms a cylinder.

Place the paper cylinder on top of the “Tea Leaf Launchpad” you’ve made in the previous step.

Ensure that you have set this up away from anything flammable!

WITH AN ADULT light the top of the cylinder.

Watch the fire burn downwards. When the fire reaches the bottom your teabag rocket should lift off!

Troubleshooting

• Sometimes the teabag grabs onto the tea leaves on the plate. Try the activity again but this time gently place the tea bag on the tea leaves as lightly as possible.
• Different brands of tea bags burn differently. You may find that the tea bag burns so well that there is no leftover ash to rise upwards. If this is the case, try another brand.

Get the Unit of Work on Heat Energy here!

• What actually is heat?
• How does heat move through different materials?
• How does heat change the properties of materials and more!

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Do you know why hot air rises though?

Hot air rises! You have just created a convection current of air moving inwards, towards the burning tea bag, and rising up as a hot air column. The rocket could only rise once the tea bag became lighter (smoke has weight too!). Anyone who has seen a hot air balloon is quite aware of this basic principle.

Heating air adds more energy to the air molecules that make air up. These molecules with extra energy move around very quickly and become more separate from each other than in the cold, low energy, air. When you separate molecules you effectively have a less dense substance.

The rules within buoyancy make less dense substances rise above more dense substances… this makes the less dense hot air rise above the cold air. The process keeps working because the cooler surrounding air keeps coming towards the light and warming up. This is a simple demonstration of convection currents that exist in thunderstorms and ocean currents.

Put simply, a convection current is the transfer of heat energy by the movement or flow of a substance from one position to another.

Variables to test

More on variables here

• Try different types of teabags. Do they all work the same or do some burn up too much?
• Is this possible to do this with tissue paper?
• Is this possible to do with a roll of standard paper?

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9 thoughts on “ Make a tea bag rocket ”

did you use a certain type of tea bag?

Hi Poppy! We use either Twinnings Teabags or Woolworths Green Teabags. Its not so much the brand, its about the teabag still having a staple in it which allows the tube of paper to be longer. Have fun 🙂

I’m gonna use a Diplomat brand teabag!!! I hope it works!

Let us know how you go!

will it work if we we use green tea

It depends on the tea bag itself. It needs to be the stapled kind and for the paper to be sufficiently thick enough to burn and still leave some ash behind to catch the updraft. Let us know how you go!

Would you say this falls under the topic of ‘energy makes things happen?’ Im doing an assignment for uni and need to ensure I’m doing an experiment that means that topic area.

Sure thing! You have chemical energy turning to heat energy which turns to kinetic energy which is forcing upwards against gravitational energy. All the best with your assignment!

thank you for the information

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Flying Tea Bag Ghosts

Kids’ science doesn’t get much cooler than these fun flying tea bag ghosts. Kids will love learning about convection and air pressure so much that they’ll be running to the panty for every last tea bag.

And, since this kids’ science activity is oh-so-simple to set up, you won’t mind repeating it over and over again.  And speaking of science, check out our jaw-dropping 30 Science Experiments for kids in our shop!

Follow the simple step-by-step below and then grab 30 more easy-to-follow science experiments kids will beg to repeat (plus a no prep science journal to keep track of their results!) in our shop or on Teachers Pay Teachers!

Getting Ready

To prepare for this activity, I grabbed a stack of tea bags, scissors, a non-flammable plate, a black marker, and a lighter.  I handed my four year old daughter, A, a tea bag and the scissors and asked her to cut the staple end off the top.

After A carefully dumped out the tea,  I quickly drew a simple ghost face on the now cylindrical tea bag and balanced it upright on the plate.  I asked a very anxious A to sit a few feet away and then lit the top of the ghost.

The tea bag burned down quickly and we were prepared to see our little ghost fly but he simply vanished into a pile of ash on the plate.  It took us several attempts using a variety of tea brands to learn that thinner bags like Lipton’s simply turn to ash.  We had the most success with slightly thicker Stash and Tazo Tea bags .  Once we figured this out we had lift off!

My little ghostbuster just couldn’t get enough and she couldn’t wait to share her discovery with the rest of the family.

The Science Behind It

To explain this kids’ science activity to my four year old I explained that air takes up space inside and outside of the tea bag cylinder.  Then I asked,  “What do you think happens to the air when we light the tea bag on fire?”

“It gets hot,” she replied.

“Yes, and when air molecules get hot they move around more and take up more space,” I explained.  We then pretended to be hot air molecules dancing around the room to the Ghostbusters theme song.  We needed a lot of space to move without bonking each other.

Next, we pretended to be cold air molecules slowly walking around the room.  I asked A if we could fit more cold air molecules into the room without crashing into each other.  “Yes, we could fit a lot of us in here if we move slowly,” she replied.

“If you have a lot of molecules in a space it is denser than if you have less molecules.  So the hot air inside the cylinder spreads out and is less dense than the cooler air outside the cylinder,” I explained.  “The less dense hot air rises above the cooler, more dense air. ”

“Heating the cylinder also caused a convection current ,” I continued.  “This is why ash flies up from a campfire.  When the air gets hot and spreads out it leaves space for the cooler air molecules to rush in.  This movement of air molecules creates a current that helps push the nearly ash tea bag {or campfire ash} into the air.”

“And that my little ghostbuster is how you make little ghosts fly!”

More Super Cool Science

For 30 more insanely cool science experiments, grab our Super Cool Science Kit from our shop!

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