Rubber Band Cannons

Instructions (with video) at the Royal Institution’s page.

An easy make & do with household scrap and elastic bands, from the Royal Institution’s excellent ExpeRimental series. These are all straightforward activities using household materials, perfect for families to collaborate or compete over on a rainy day.

This film shows you how to turn crisp tubes and a small pop bottle into a surprisingly powerful (and entertainingly inaccurate) foil-firing cannon. Along the way there’s plenty of opportunity to discuss energy transfer and projectile dynamics… or simply to knock things over and cause widespread mayhem.

updated March 2026: we’ve updated the links above to point to the closest equivalent resources at the Royal Institution’s current website.