Matt Bingham demonstrates Newton's Third Law for the freshman Physics class. Using a rocket-wagon fabricated by Tom Sando, Mr. Bingham shows the students that "for every force, there is an equal and opposite force." The carbon dioxide coming out of the modified fire extuinquiser propels Mr. Bingham and the wagon forward.

Besides seeing the demonstration, students collected data showing how long it took Mr. Bingham to travel 1 meter, 2 meters, etc. From this data, they calculated the acceleration and the force on the the rocketcart. This is a classic example of Newton's Third Law (for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction). The "action" (beyond atmospheric pressure in the CO2 bottle) is the bottle (and the cart and teacher attached) exerting a force on the gas. The "reaction" is the gas exerting a force on the bottle/cart/teacher system. The cart pushes on the gas and the gas pushes on the cart. The cart pushing on the gas moves the gas backward and the gas pushing on the cart moves the cart forward. The big trick to the whole thing is that the action and reaction forces are exactly equal, but since the gas is very light (less mass) and the bottle/cart/teacher are very heavy (more mass), the gas has a big acceleration (Woooosh!) and the bottle/cart/teacher has a small one.