PURPOSE: To illustrate Pascal's law in a dramatic way.
DESCRIPTION: Referring to the photograph on the right, pouring water (colored green) into the tube at the left in the photograph causes the asymmetric configuration shown due to the equalization of pressure in the central air bubble. Similarly, if one end of a three-turn loop of tubing is raised vertically, as in the photograph at the left above, water poured into the high end will never come out the bottom end, even when the bottom end is lying flat on the table, as seen in the center photograph.
The behavior of water poured into the three-turn coil is shown in the videos below. You can view a movie of this in several formats:
SUGGESTIONS: See Question of the Week #204 for suggestions on using this demonstration to enhance class involvement.
REFERENCES: (PIRA unknown.)
EQUIPMENT: Mounted short plastic tube with green water, three-turn Tygon tube mounted on plastic cylinder.
SETUP TIME: 5 min.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |