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Baking Soda Boat Design

1. Draw the first design of your boat below. In your design consider the following aspects by
answering the questions and incorporating your ideas into your design. Your design must be
drawn below and the materials you plan to use must be listed and labeled on the diagram. You
are responsible for supplying any additional materials needed for your design.
○ How will you modify the chamber to keep the baking soda and vinegar separate until
you want the reaction to occur?
○ How will you attach the straw? And where on the bottle will it be added?
○ What are some ways to seal the openings so the CO 2 only escapes through the straws?
○ Are you going to change or add anything to the outside of the boat?
○ What are some possible ways you could speed up the reaction?
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2. Now, you must consider how much of each substance you will need for the reaction. You must
calculate the exact amount of each to make sure neither limits the reaction for the other. Keep
in mind that the maximum volume of both substances cannot exceed 500ml.
○ What is the balanced chemical equation for the reaction?

○ How much vinegar do you want to use? How much baking soda would be needed to run
that reaction completely?

○ The vinegar we are using is 6% acid strength- in other words, the vinegar
contains 6% acetic acid and 94% water. In our balanced equation we were
assuming that it was 100% acetic acid. If we have 6% of the acidity we need to
multiply our amount of vinegar by 16.67 to get the same acidity as the balanced
equation (70g x 16.67 = 1,166.9 g). Since this is a lot of vinegar we are going to do
the opposite and use 16.67 times less baking soda to keep the amounts
reasonable (divide amount of baking soda by 16.67). Using your reaction above,
how much 6% vinegar would you need to add? Is that reasonable?

○ Using your findings from the second question, pick a reasonable amount of baking soda
(in g) for your boat. Show your work to determine the amount of 6% vinegar needed to
run a complete reaction. Use the bolded paragraph above to help you with your
calculations. (Hint: Pick an amount of baking soda and determine the amount of vinegar
needed, then divide that amount of baking soda by 16.67)

Amount of baking soda to start: Amount of vinegar needed:

Baking soda needed after calculations for 6% vinegar:

○ Are the amounts above reasonable for the parameters of our project? Why or why not?
If they are not, repeat the process to determine the amounts of baking soda and vinegar
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you want to use to power your boat.