During the Space Shuttle’s last flight this week, many have with melancholy said bye to the whole Space Shuttle program with heaviness in their hearts.
I’ve had a heavy heart, too, but largely this post says goodbye to a joke, not the whole shuttle program.
It’s prop comedy, what you’ll need is 4 ordinary matches and metal foil. A lot of smokers are already armed with the equipment.
Pull off 3 matches and put them together, lengthwise. Now wrap a strip of foil (roughly 1inch by 3 inches) so that half the foil goes over the match heads and partly down the cardboard, and the other half goes past the matches. When done wrapping, twist the foil that is not covering the matches so no air can escape from this end. Now bend the cardboard of the matches 45 degrees, from the line of the tin foil to the bottom of the match. The three match bottoms must make a stable a tripod for the finished rocket to stand.
Stand the 3 match rocket up and strike a 4th match. Start the legs of the tripod on fire.
Now say, “This is my imitation of the space shuttle Challenger.”
Here is my video showing a 3 match rocket going off. The hope is that someone else will film a more impressive one – It took me half an hour to get the one shown (yeah I was talking to someone and got easily distracted).
I used to be able to get more explosive reactions. Perhaps aluminum foil is heavier than cigarette foil. Or maybe it was just a matter of being a more dedicated pyromaniac in my youth.
Technically the ‘explosion’ looks more like an explosion on the launch pad. I heard that at least one Soviet rocket blew up on the launch pad. But no one in North America has any idea what that rocket was called. Thus we have my poke at the Shuttle program.
And, in high school, when I was first told of these rockets by a teenage girl, she claimed they could rise 3 or 4 feet in the air. I have never had one rise more than a foot and usually sideways. So burn on, other pyromaniacs with better engineering skills. If you get one to rise 3 feet in the air, please film it and share it on YouTube.
