How to make a Rubber Band Powered Boat!

Smarties always love boats. When they were younger, we (especially their grandpa) will always make a paper boat for them to play with during their bathtime. Now that they are older, they wanted a more powerful boat and because they are older, they get to make a boat themselves! This is the time when screen time is allowed because they wanted to do some research on how to make a more powerful boat compared to a paper boat. They may be young, but mind you, they know how to do their research which sometimes I have to seek their pieces of advice.

After some time, they finally decided to make a rubber band powered boat! They watched the video once. Yes, just once and they started collecting materials at home to make sure they have everything before working on their project.

Here are the materials required and they can be easily found in most households:
– empty mineral water bottle
– a pair of chopsticks
– 2 spoons with just the “scoop” portion
– rubber bands, of course
– scotch tape, hot glue gun, UHU glue (any of these)

Step 1:
Stick the chopsticks onto the mineral water bottle. You may use scotch tape and rubber bands to make sure it is secured.

Step 2:
If you have hot glue gun at home, that will be the best. Otherwise, you may use UHU glue to stick the 2 spoons together as shown.

Make sure the 1 spoon is facing up and the other is facing down as shown below.

Step 3:
Tie the rubber band near the end of the chopsticks and hot glue the spoons to the rubber band as shown below. This is to secure the spoons to the rubber band so that it won’t fall when we wind up the rubber band later.

Step 4:
It’s all done! Get a tub of water and you can start playing with the rubber band powered boat. Simple isn’t it? Test it and see how you can improve it further to make it more powerful!

How does this work?
When you wound up the rubber band and then let go, the spoons will rotate back into place (in other words, unwound) which gives it motion. Thus, the spoons act like a propeller in this case. And when the propeller moves, it applies force on the water in a backward direction and with the water also giving equal force against it, the boat will move. When the propeller stops moving, wind it up again and do it all over again. This is the science behind it!

Smarties were fascinated by this science and craft work involved and they are continuing to improve the boat to make it more powerful. It really makes them think and figure how it works and how to make it better. How about you? For better view and step by step guide on how to make the rubber powered boat, check out the video below!