School Science Lessons
(UNPh13)
2024-08-03
Barometers
Contents
13.1.0 Barometers
13.2.0 Bernoulli force
13.3.0 Hydraulics
13.4.0 Non-Newtonian fluids
13.5.0 Syringes for investigating air pressure
13.6.0 Turbulent and streamline flow
13.7.0 Venturi tube, fly spray, chimney effect
13.5.0 Vortex
13.1.0 Barometers
13.1.1 Atmospheric pressure, barometer, Torricelli
Experiments
4.230 Aneroid barometer, barograph
13.1.2 Atmospheric pressure, liquids rise in a sipping straw
13.1.3 Barometer in a bell jar
13.1.4 Barometer, simple barometer
13.1.5 Card on inverted glass
13.1.6 Measure atmospheric pressure with a bicycle pump
13.1.7 Measure atmospheric pressure with a rubber suction cup
4.229 Mercury barometer
13.1.5 Pressure drop along a line
13.2.0 Bernoulli force, Bunsen burner, air streams
13.2.1 Aerodynamic drafting, slipstreaming, tailgating
13.2.2 Aerofoils, parts of an aircraft
13.2.3 Aerofoils, Comments on diagram 13.2.2
13.2.4 Air flow can create lift
13.2.5 Air flow, hair dryer, vacuum cleaner, ping-pong ball, balloon
13.2.6 Air streams, Bernoulli theorem
13.2.7 Attracting ping-pong balls
13.2.8 Bernoulli force and shower curtain
13.2.9 Bernoulli force, Bunsen burner, air streams
13.2.10 Bernoulli loop the loop, Bjerknes' tube
13.2.11 Blow ping-pong ball from cup to cup
13.2.12 Card and cotton reel spool
13.2.13 Coanda effect, spoon touches a water stream
13.2.14 Deep breathing exerciser
13.2.15 Flowing air can do work
13.2.16 Lift from spin, "swerve ball", curve ball, golf balls, Bjerknes' tube
13.2.17 Pitot tube
13.2.18 Skipping stones on water, "ducks and drakes" game
13.2.19 Soccer balls
13.2.20 Venturi flow meter
13.3.0 Hydraulics, hydraulic lift, Pascal's hydraulic press, Bramah press
13.3.1 Hydraulics, hydraulic lift, Pascal's hydraulic press, Bramah press
13.3.3 Hydraulic ram, water ram, water hammer
13.3.2 Raise weights by water pressure, hydraulic lift
13.3.4 Water cannot be compressed
13.4.0 Non-Newtonian fluids
"Colour Changing Putty", heat sensitive putty, PVA, (polyvinyl alcohol), (toy product)
"Poly-Ox", Polyethylene oxide, non-Newtonian self-siphoning gel, (toy product)
Experiments
13.4.1 Cornstarch, cornflour slime, isotropy and thixotropy
13.4.2 Density balls in beans
13.4.3 Reynolds' dilatancy
13.4.4 Rising stones, granular mixtures, Brazil nut effect
13.4.5 Shear-thickening, stir-thickening, dilatant fluids, rheopectic fluids
13.4.6 Shear-thinning, stir-thinning, thixotropy
13.4.7 Tomato sauce, ketchup, catsup
13.4.8 Viscosity of Newtonian fluids
13.4.9 Viscosity of non-Newtonian fluids
13.6.0 Turbulent and streamline flow
13.6.1 Poiseuille flow
13.6.2 Rayleigh-Taylor instability
13.6.3 Reynold's number
13.6.4 Turbulent and streamline flow, shadows, weather maps
13.6.5 Water stream from a tap, faucet
13.1.1 Atmospheric pressure, barometer, Torricelli
Evangelista Torricelli (1608-1647) was the first to explain why mercury rises in a barometer.
The space above the mercury in the barometer tube has been called the "Torricelli vacuum", but that space is saturated with mercury vapour.
Atmospheric pressure is the pressure due to the weight of the atmosphere on the surface of the earth.
You can measure it from the height of mercury in a barometer.
One standard atmosphere, 1 atm.
= 101.325 kPa, 101325 n / m2, 1013.25 millibar of pressure is the pressure at the base of a column of mercury 760 mm high at 0oC.
You can measure atmospheric pressure with a Fortin barometer, Aneroid barometer, or a Bourdon Gauge.
The Fortin barometer measures the height of a column of mercury.
The aneroid barometer measures changes in the volume of a vacuum chamber.
The Bourdon Gauge measures the change in shape of a flexible tube.
The millibar, mbar or mb, is used in meteorology for recording barometric pressure.
Use a plastic Torricelli barometer made of Lucite (Perspex).
13.1.2 Atmospheric pressure, liquids rise in a sipping straw
See diagram 37.117: Glass tube drinking straws.
Use a flask with a "straw " of glass tubing and a short glass right angle
elbow held in a rubber.
When the end of the bent tube is closed with the finger sipping liquid up through the straw is difficult, but it is easy when you remove the finger.
To show that pressure on the surface of the water is the factor that causes the liquid to rise in the tube, blowing through the right angle tube can raise the pressure.
For a variation of this demonstration, completely fill a flask with water
and close with a rubber stopper containing a length of glass
tubing.
Try to drink the water through the "straw "! If you completely exclude
air from the bottle, you will be unsuccessful.
13.1.3 Barometer in a bell jar
Put a simple mercury barometer in a tall bell jar.
Evacuate the bell jar and note the mercury level in the barometer.
13.1.4 Barometer, simple barometer
Barometers are used to measure pressure in gases.
The simple barometer (mercury barometer, Fortin barometer) is used for measuring atmospheric pressure.
Stretch thin rubber across the mouth of a small jar and fix it in place with elastic bands around the rim of the jar.
The jar now contains a volume of air at air pressure.
Lay one end of a drinking straw over the rubber and fasten it to the centre with glue.
Press lightly on the this end of the drinking straw and see how the other end magnifies the movement and acts as a pointer with the edge of the jar acting as a fulcrum.
Draw a scale on paper and fix it vertically.
When air pressure increases the volume of air in the jar decreases the rubber dips down and the end of the pointer moves up.
When air pressure decreases the volume of air in the jar increases the rubber moves up down and the end of the pointer moves down.
13.1.5 Card on inverted glass
Put playing card on full glass of water then invert the glass.
Replace the glass by a 50 cm glass tube, when half filled it cannot be inverted.
13.1.6 Measure atmospheric pressure with a bicycle pump
See diagram 12.309: Measure atmospheric pressure with a bicycle pump.
The average atmospheric pressure at sea level is 1.033 kilogram per square centimetre (14.7 pounds per square inch.)
1. Use a bicycle pump with the washer reversed to measure atmospheric pressure.
Make the piston airtight by adding thick oil to the barrel of the pump and sealing the hole for the valve connection.
Find the weight supported by atmospheric pressure by hanging various loads from a hook attached to the pump handle.
Record the weight F.
Take apart the pump to measure the inside diameter of the pump.
Record the inside diameter, d.
Calculate the cross-section area of the pump, Area = pi x (d / 2)2.
To calculate the pressure, pressure = F / A, where the force is equal to the weight hanging from the pump handle.
2. Make the piston airtight by adding thick oil
to the barrel of the pump and sealing the hole for the valve connection.
Find the weight supported by atmospheric pressure by hanging various loads from a hook attached to the pump handle.
Record the weight, F.
Take apart the pump to measure the inside diameter of the pump.
Record the inside diameter, d.
Calculate the pressure of the air.
The cross-section area of the pump, Area = pi × d / 22.
Pressure = F / A The force is equal to the weight hanging from the pump handle = Atmospheric pressure, Po = 4F / pi ×d2.
13.1.7 Measure atmospheric pressure with a rubber suction cup
See diagram 12.6.3: Measure atmospheric pressure with a suction cup.
Measure the area of the suction cup by pressing it down onto a sheet of glass above a sheet of graph paper and drawing its outline.
Measure the diameter to calculate the area.
Record the area A.
Attach the hook of the spring balance to the neck of the sucker.
Use a spring balance to find the force required to pull the sucker away from a smooth surface, e.g. a sheet of glass.
Record the force, F.
Calculate the average atmospheric pressure.
When there is no air inside the sucker, by fully pressing the sucker on the smooth surface, the force shown on the spring balance equals the force, because of atmospheric pressure acting on the sucker.
Pressure = force / area.
Repeat the experiment with different size suckers, then calculate the average atmospheric pressure.
The average atmospheric pressure at sea level is 1.033 kilogram per square centimetre, 14.7 pounds per square inch.
13.1.8 Pressure drop along a line
See diagram 13.2.6.3: Bernoulli tubes, Venturi tubes.
Open tubes along a drain pipe show pressure drop along a line.
4.229 Mercury barometer
See diagram 12.307: Mercury barometer.
The "space" is the Torricelli "vacuum" that contains mercury vapour.
In SI units, standard value for atmospheric pressure at sea level is 101 325 pascals, 101.325 kPa.
Correction of barometer readings to 0oC temperature for a mercury barometer with a brass scale.
The value of dh should be subtracted from the observed height of the mercury column to give the true pressure in mm Hg (1 mm Hg = 133.322 Pa).
dh = -0.0001634 ht / (1+0.0001818 t), where h = observed column height in mm and t = the temperature in degrees Celsius.
Thermal expansion coefficient for mercury (volume) = 181 × 10-8K-1.
Thermal expansion coefficient for brass (linear) = 20.3 × 10-8K-1.
1. Do NOT construct a mercury barometer in a school science lessons
However, if you have access to a mercury barometer you can note how it works.
The barometer is manufactured by filling a strong glass tube sealed at one end with mercury, then inverting the open end of the tube in a reservoir of mercury.
The mercury in the tube drops down to a steady level leaving above it a vacuum with some mercury vapour.
The vertical distance between the level of mercury in the tube and the reservoir is the height of mercury with the same pressure as the atmosphere, the atmospheric pressure.
The average atmospheric pressure is about 760 mm of mercury, mmHg (29.9 inches, 1013.2 millibars).
The height of the mercury drops with increase in altitude, about 4.5 cm for every 270 m.
To read the barometer, tap the side of the tube to prevent the mercury sticking to it, adjust the height of mercury with the zero adjustment knob, then read the height of the meniscus with the vernier.
You can adjust the reading for temperature and latitude, g is least at the equator.
Barometric pressure is the pressure of the atmosphere read from a barometer in millibars, mbar, or hectopascals, hPa.
(1 mbar = 1 hPa) (1 pascal, Pa = 1 N / m2).
One atmosphere = approximately 100 kilopascals (100 kPa).
2. You can construct a water barometer, but you will need a tube 10.3 m long.
4.230 Aneroid barometer, barograph
See diagram 4.230: Aneroid barometer: A Sealed rubber tube.
A barograph keeps a continuous record of pressure with a pen attached to an aneroid barometer recording on paper on a rotating drum.
1. Use a corrugated rubber tube from a motor car, or a bicycle handle grip.
Compress the rubber tube then insert two corks at the ends so that the tube can function as a vacuum box.
Make the tube airtight by sealing the corked closed ends with wax and by tying around the outside with wire.
Attach a weight to hang from the lower cork to extend the tube.
Attach a pointer to the weight so that it points to a scale.
You can read any changes in atmospheric pressure from the scale.
The aneroid barometer is not as accurate as the mercury barometer.
An altimeter is an aneroid barometer used in aircraft.
The pilot can adjust it before takeoff so that the zero on the altimeter scale corresponds to ground level at the aerodrome.
2. Cut the neck off a balloon then stretch the rubber over the mouth of a large wide mouth jar to form an air-tight seal.
Tie a string tightly around the mouth of the container to keep the rubber in place.
Make a pointer by attaching one end of a light stick or straw to the centre of the rubber with adhesive tape.
The other end of the stick or straw can point to a scale to show changes in atmospheric pressure.
The pointer moves up or down as atmospheric pressure changes.
3. Blow and suck on a chamber containing an aneroid barometer.
Put an aneroid barometer in a sealable chamber with a tap and evacuate the jar with an electric pump.
13.2.1 Aerodynamic drafting, slipstreaming, tailgating
Drafting occurs when a follower moving object in close proximity to a leader experience less aerodynamic drag, because of the leaders slipstream.
It used in cycle racing, motor racing, speed skating on ice and perhaps horse racing.
Drafting can reduce the energy expenditure of a pace line.
In a single cyclist pace line, the cyclists line up behind the first rider, whose job is to maintain a constant speed.
After a period a rotation occurs, when the front rider pulls off to the side and joins the back of the line.
The next rider then sets the pace at the beginning of the pace line.
Drafting behind motor vehicles on the highway, tailgating, may save fuel, but it is a dangerous, and in many countries illegal, practice.
Tailgating is the cause of severe motor vehicle accidents when the leading vehicle brakes suddenly unaware of the following vehicle.
Birds flying in formation my generate uplift for following birds from their wing tips.
13.2.2 Aerofoils, Parts of an aircraft
See diagram 13.2.2: Parts of an aircraft.
Aerofoils are structures that cause a lift when moving through air, e.g. the wing of an aircraft.
Aerofoils may also be fitted to road vehicles and racing cars to cause downward pressure on the road service and improve their stability.
Experiments
1.See diagram 13.2.2: Blow across a wing.
Cut out a 12 × 12 cm piece of paper.
Draw a line parallel to one side and 1 cm from the edge.
Fold the paper over so that the top edge is along the line.
Now the paper is divided into two parts.
The bottom part is 5.5 + 1.0 = 6.5 cm long.
The top part is 5.5 cm long.
Use adhesive tap or a stapler to attach the two edges.
to make an aerofoil, e.g. a wing.
The wing now has a curved edge and a sharp edge.
Lay the wing on the desk so that the shorter 5.5. cm long side is flat down on the desk.
The top 6.5 cm side is curved, because it is longer.
Hold a round pencil horizontally through the aerofoil so that it hangs down from the pencil with the longer curved side away from you.
Blow sharply across the wing just above the pencil.
The sharp edge of the wing rises.
Instead of blowing, repeat the experiment with a vacuum cleaner.
The air you blow along the curved side has further to go and moves faster than air you blow along the straight side, so its pressure is less.
The higher pressure under the straight side pushes up the sharp edge of the wing.
2. Hold one edge of a sheet of paper horizontally, let the rest hang down.
Blow across the paper and watch the sheet rise.
3. Hold the wing in front of a globe of paper or Plasticine (modelling clay) hanging from a piece of cotton.
Hold the end of the cotton so that the globe of paper or Plasticine is hanging near the vacuum cleaner outlet.
Turn on the vacuum cleaner and note the angle of the cotton to the vertical.
Repeat the experiment with the aerofoil wing between the vacuum cleaner outlet and the hanging globe.
By adjusting the position of the aerofoil wing you can get the globe to move backwards towards the wing, because turbulence, eddy currents, around the wing obstruction creates a partial vacuum.
Turbulence produces frictional drag that slows an object travelling in air or water.
The ideal shape is an aerofoil (airfoil), that keeps turbulence to a minimum.
When standing on a bridge, you can see that the water below flowing around a pier is turbulent behind the pier.
Air around an obstruction also behaves in the same manner.
4. Blow an air stream between two suspended parallel cards on bifilar suspensions.
A stream of air blown between a paper and a surface will cause the paper to cling to the surface.
5. Connect slant manometers to holes on the top and bottom of an aerofoil.
6. Strong winds raise the roof.
Blow air over a model house to raise the roof.
During hurricanes or typhoons, the contents of house may be "sucked" out of a broken window, because of high pressure inside the house and low pressure, because of the strong winds outside.
In Hong Kong, China, the houses have locking security windows that leave a small gap to allow pressure to equalize inside and outside the house.
7. Observe the aerofoil of a Formula 1 racing car at the back of the car behind the driver.
Compared to the aerofoil wing of an aircraft it is inverted, because it is not designed to produce lift, but a "down force" to keep the racing car on the road, especially when rounding a corner.
8. Detach the hose from a vacuum cleaner and connect it to where air can come out so the vacuum cleaner can act as a blower.
Remove any nozzle and aim the hose vertically upwards.
Turn on the vacuum cleaner and place a ping-pong ball in the airflow.
The ping-pong ball moves to the centre of the airflow.
Tilt the nozzle to one side and the ping-pong ball stays in the middle of the air flow.
9. When a boomerang is thrown, it is held nearly vertically, slightly tilted to the right.
The cross sectional shape is asymmetric as in an aerofoil.
As the boomerang is thrown, it spins.
If the side that is more "bulged" is on the left side as it is held, a Bernoulli Lift force acts toward the left.
This nearly horizontal force vector constantly acts to curve the path of the boomerang so that it may follows an entire horizontal circle and returns to the thrower.
The rotational spin creates the Bernoulli force vector that is slightly upward of being straight horizontal to the left.
This small vertical component of the force vector overcomes the vertical weight vector of the boomerang, which keeps it from crashing down.
Aerodynamic drag slows down the boomerang's spin, the Bernoulli force vector also reduces.
If the vertical component of the Bernoulli force drops to less than the weight of the boomerang, it falls and crashes.
10. Direct a stream of air from a vacuum cleaner at a balanced model aircraft and observe the lift.
13.2.3 Comments on diagram 13.2.2
See diagram 13.2.2: Parts of an aircraft.
Some people say that the Bernoulli's principle is incorrectly applied to understanding aircraft lift and that Newton's three laws contribute to lift.
So the shape of the wing has nothing to do with the physics of lift, only to the efficiency of lift (reduced drag).
Diagram 13.2.2 of an asymmetrical aerofoil does not produce lift, because there is no down wash off the trailing edge of the wing.
Down wash is caused by the angle of attack of the wing and viscosity.
Air flow in a venturi tube is not air flow over a wing and a wing is not half a venturi tube.
However, other people say that two separate and quite different processes create aerodynamic lift for modern aircraft, i.e. "Reaction lift" and "Bernoulli lift".
Reaction Lift is the effect of the pressure of moving fluid, e.g. air, against the bottom of a tilted surface.
Consistent with the action and reaction of Newton's laws of motion, the air that hits the bottom of that tilted surface is deflected downward (action) to create an equal and opposite reaction, upward lift, in the wing.
The process of Reaction Lift is naturally unstable.
Bernoulli Lift is entirely created due to the shape of the wing.
The upper surface of the wing is always bulging out more than the lower surface and Newton's Conservation of Energy causes any fluid flow to have (slightly) lower pressure if it is moving faster.
The air that meets the front edge of a wing must get past it, to meet up again after the wing has gone by.
he bigger bulge of the top side of a wing (aerofoil), means the air has to move a little faster, to cover the longer distance, than air that went under the wing where the path was straighter.
Bernoulli Lift is simply the effect of this slight difference of pressure above and below a wing.
It only depends on the shape of the wing, the velocity of the air and the density of the air.
It has no dependence on the angle of the wing to the air motion.
13.2.4 Air flow can create lift
See diagram 13.2.3: Airflow creates lift.
See diagram 13.1.3: Blowing card.
See diagram 13.2.3a: Funnel and ball.
1. Airflow can create lift.
Lift by blowing air.
Connect the hose from a vacuum cleaner over a circular tube attached to a circular piece of cardboard.
The end of the hose fits exactly over the circular tube.
Turn on the vacuum cleaner.
Air passes through the hose, down through the circular tube and outwards under the circular piece of cardboard.
Lift the hose and the circular piece of cardboard rises with it.
Attach paper streamers to the end of the vacuum cleaner hose to show that the vacuum cleaner is actually blowing, not "sucking".
This experiment is sometimes called "the parallel plate paradox".
2. Make cards by cutting out two pieces of light cardboard 6 cm × 10 cm.
Fold the cards about the centre line and 1 cm from the edge.
Put the folded cards on the edge of the table and blow underneath them.
The cards become pressed down against the table.
According to Bernoulli's principle, the faster the air flow, the lower the pressure it exerts.
When you blow underneath the cards, you lower the air pressure underneath them.
so the cards are pressed down against the table by atmospheric pressure.
3. Cut out a strip of paper 20 × 2 cm.
Bend it down at one end and hold the bent end in front of your mouth.
Blow over the paper strip and it rises.
Some electric fans have paper strips attached to the safety grille in front of the fan blades.
Turn on the fan and the paper strips stream out.
This can be a useful safety device to show that the fan is turned on.
Hold a funnel over the end of a vacuum cleaner hose.
Turn on the vacuum cleaner and hold the end of the hose over a ping-pong ball on the table.
The ping-pong ball rises in the funnel.
Hold the hose so that the ping-pong ball is pushed into the narrower region of the funnel where it is held in a position of stable equilibrium.
13.2.5 Air flow, hair dryer,
vacuum cleaner, ping-pong ball, balloon
See diagram 13.2.5: Ping-pong ball in air stream.
An electric hair dryer and a vacuum cleaner can be used as a laminar flow gas propulsion devices to show Bernoulli forces.
However, the hair dryer should be used only under adult supervision and never in or near water, not switched on for more than two minutes, and not blocked where the air exits.
Use the coolest setting on the hair dryer.
A vacuum cleaner can be used instead of a hair dryer only if the flexible hose can be attached to the air exit.
Experiments
1. Release a ping-pong ball into the vertical air stream from the outlet end of a vacuum cleaner at a distance of 30 cm from the hose.
Slowly tilt the hose outlet to an angle of about 30o, but keeping the ping-pong ball suspended.
Repeat the experiment with a rubber balloon or a beach ball.
The vertical air stream from the hair dryer moves around the a balloon to create a partial vacuum above it.
The balloon tends to move up into the partial vacuum, but air moving around the balloon comes together as jets of air above the vacuum that keep the balloon in place.
2. Direct the air flow from the hair dryer vertically upwards and balance a ping-pong ball or a balloon on the flow so that they do not move, but remain suspended in the air.
With the ping-pong ball still suspended lower a cardboard cylindrical tube (map tube) down towards it.
The ping-pong ball is "sucked up" into the cardboard tube.
Adding the cardboard tube channel moves the air into a narrower space, so the air increases speed and the ping-pong ball follows it upwards.
3. Move the hair dryer and vertical air flow next to a wall or a corner to increase the height of the suspension.
4. Throw the ping-pong ball or balloon into the air and catch them on the vertical air flow from the hair dryer.
5. Ask a student to hold a balloon with both hands half in the vertical air flow.
Hold the palm of the hand around and above the balloon and feel the air flow jet.
13.2.6 Air streams, Bernoulli theorem
See diagram 13.2.6.1: Air streams, Funnel, Spool: A Cardboard, B Spool, C Pin.
See diagram 13.2.6.2: Atomizer: A Atmospheric pressure, B Blow in, C Low pressure, D "Atomizer" fly spray, E Spray, F piston.
See diagram 13.2.6.3: Bernoulli theorem.
Experiments
1. Put a ping-pong ball inside a funnel.
Blow hard through the stem of the funnel to blow the ball out of the funnel.
You cannot blow the ball out of the funnel.
The fast moving air travelling through the neck of the funnel is at a lower pressure than the slow moving air in the wide section of the funnel, so the ball is pushed towards the neck of the funnel.
Air streams behave as fluids.
According to the Bernoulli theorem, as the velocity of a fluid increases, its pressure decreases.
At any point in a fluid-filled pipe, the kinetic energy and the potential energy of a mass of a flowing fluid is constant.
The fast moving air travelling through the neck of the funnel is at a lower pressure than the slow moving air in the wide section of the funnel so the ball is pushed towards the neck of the funnel.
2. Invert the funnel and hold the ping-pong ball in the hand.
Blow hard through the stem.
Remove your hand from under the ping-pong ball.
The ping-pong ball does not fall.
When you repeat the experiment with your clenched fist, the ping-pong ball may rise and stay there.
However, when doing the experiment with an empty fist, the flowing speed in not fast enough, because of many cracks between your fingers so that not enough low pressure area forms and the ball does not rise.
You may need to practice this experiment several times before demonstrating to the class.
Some teachers cannot do it!
3. Put the ping-pong ball on a table.
Cover it with the funnel.
Blow through the stem and pick the ball up from the table.
The pressure in the wide section of the funnel is greater than the pressure in the neck of the funnel so the ball is pushed up towards the neck.
4. Cut a piece of thin cardboard about 7 × 7 cm.
Draw diagonals from each corner and put a pin through the card where the lines cross at the centre.
Secure the head of the pin by covering it with adhesive tape.
Put the pin in the hole of an empty thread spool and try to blow the card from the spool by blowing through the spool.
Turn the spool and card upside down.
Hold the card against the spool lightly with a finger.
Blow firmly through the spool, then remove the finger.
Air moving through the inside of the spool is at a lower pressure than the air outside the spool.
Thus atmospheric pressure pushes the card against the end of the spool.
5. Attach a funnel to a source of compressed air, e.g. a vacuum cleaner.
Blow up a balloon and put a piece of copper wire around the neck for a weight.
Turn on the compressed air and balance the balloon in the air stream.
Try to balance a ping-pong ball between the balloon and the funnel.
6. Attach a funnel to a source of compressed air such as a vacuum cleaner.
Blow up a balloon and put a piece of copper wire around the neck for a weight.
Turn on the compressed air and balance the balloon in the air stream.
Try to balance a ping-pong ball between the balloon and the funnel.
7. Cut a 7 X 7 cm square of thin cardboard.
Draw diagonals from each corner and put a pin through the card where the lines cross at the centre.
Secure the head of the pin by covering it with adhesive tape.
Put the pin in the hole of an empty thread spool and try to blow the card from the spool by blowing through the spool.
Turn the spool and card upside down.
Hold the card against the spool lightly with a finger.
Blow firmly through the spool, then remove the finger.
Air moving inside the spool is at a lower pressure than the air outside the spool.
So, atmospheric pressure pushes the card against the end of the spool.
8. Float a pea and pin in the air.
Soak a dried pea in water until it is just soft enough to pass a pin through the centre of it.
Cut a 5 cm length of a drinking straw.
Lie on your back and blow gently through the piece of drinking straw held vertically from your lips.
Stop blowing, place the pea on the end of the drinking straw with the pin vertical, so one end of the pin is pointing down inside the drinking straw.
Gently blow through the drinking straw to lift the pea and later maintain a suspended constant position.
The pin will also revolve when the blown air hits the ends of the pin.
Be careful! Do not open your mouth and swallow the pea and pin!
9. Display a floating ball.
Suspend a ball in an upward jet of air.
Support a ping-pong ball on a vertical stream of water, air or steam.
Suspend a Styrofoam ball in an air jet from a vacuum cleaner.
10. Make a Venturi tube.
Use two glass tubes or two transparent drinking straws.
Stand the first tube vertically in a half glass of coloured water.
Hold the second tube at a right angle to the top end of the first tube
so that the ends of the two tubes are close together.
Blow through the second tube and observe the water level in the first tube.
Moving air has less pressure than stationary air.
Air is moving over the top of the vertical tube so the pressure in this region is less than atmospheric pressure and atmospheric pressure pushes water up the tube.
11. Lift an egg by blowing.
Put a boiled egg in a small cup.
Blow strongly into the cup to make the boiled egg jump out.
Some people with strong lungs can blow the boiled egg from one cup into another cup.
12. Lift water by blowing.
Observe the action of an atomizer by blowing a jet of air across one end of a U-tube half full of water.
13.2.7 Attracting ping-pong balls
See diagram 13.1.2: Ping-pong balls.
1. Attach threads to two ping-pong balls with adhesive tape.
Hold the ends of the threads so that the ping-pong balls hang suspended 2 cm apart.
Blow between the ping-pong balls.
They move together into the region of decreased pressure caused by your blowing action.
If you blow hard enough the ping-pong balls click together.
With the blower aimed at the space between two ping-pong balls, the blower is brought up to full power, the pressure between the ping-pong balls is reduced, then they appear "attracted" to each other.
2. Blow between two suspended parallel and vertical sheets of aluminium foil or sheets of paper.
The suspended sheets move together.
3. Put 10 plastic drinking straws 2 cm apart and parallel on a flat table.
Place two empty drink-cans 2 cm apart on the drinking straws.
Blow between the drink-cans.
They move together over the rolling drinking straws.
4. Blow an air stream between two parallel cards on bifilar suspensions.
5. Close a paper envelope by blowing.
Hold an envelope end-on and parallel to your mouth with the flap slightly open.
Blow along the envelope under the flap and it closes.
A stream of air blown between paper and a surface will cause the paper to cling to the surface.
13.2.8 Bernoulli force and shower curtain
Use a shower made of light plastic material.
Turn on the shower and the curtain moves towards the falling water due to an Bernoulli effect.
The falling water causes a reduction in air pressure under the shower.
13.2.9 Bernoulli force, Bunsen burner, air streams
See diagram 13.2.6.3: Bernoulli tubes, Venturi tubes.
Daniel Bernoulli (1700-1782), showed that when the speed of a fluid increases the pressure of the fluid decreases.
The four forces are as follows: 1. Lift, 2. Weight, 3. Drag, 4. Thrust.
Bernoulli's law (Bernoulli's principle, Bernoulli theorem), applies the law of conservation of energy to fluids and is the basic law of fluid mechanics.
It states that at any point in a fluid flowing with constant speed, the sum of the pressure, potential energy and kinetic energy per unit volume is constant.
Bernoulli's principle states that when the speed of a fluid increases, the pressure in the fluid decreases.
You can explain aerodynamic lifting force, lift, as a reaction force of the air stream pushed down by the aerofoil.
The longer path length of air passing over an aerofoil does not cause lift.
Bernoulli tubes have air flowing through a tube and a restricted tube and manometers show the pressure of flowing air at points along both tubes.
Blow air through a constricted tube and measure the pressure with a manometer of flowing air at points along the restricted tube.
Use open vertical pipes show the drop in pressure as water flows through a constriction in pipes by placing three pressure-indicating manometers with bright wood floats located at and on either side of a constriction in a horizontal tube with water flow.
Similarly, when air flows through a restricted tube, manometers show the pressure differences.
Bernoulli's theorem can be regarded as a statement of the principle of conservation of energy for a special case of an incompressible liquid flowing through a pipe of non-uniform cross section, viz. for any fluid flowing steadily along a pipe of non-uniform cross section area, the total change in energy per unit mass taken along a steam line is equal to the work done against the pressure.
13.2.10 Bernoulli loop the loop, Bjerknes' tube
See diagram 13.2.7: Swerve ball, Bjerknes' tube.
See diagram 13.2.12: Bernoulli / Venturi tubes.
1. When air flows through a restricted tube, manometers show the pressure differences.
2. Pulling a cord wrapped around a mailing tube spins it into a loop.
Jerk out cloth webbing wrapped around a mailing tube to cause the tube to spin through a loop.
Wrap one metre of cloth tape around the middle of a mailing tube and give a jerk so that the tube does a loop-the-loop.
3. Tie one 125 cm of heavy cotton string to the end of a meter stick.
Wrap the string tightly around the exact middle of the Bjerknes' tube, a 90 cm long, 10 cm diameter mailing tube with duct-taped ends,
leaving 30 cm of unwound string between the tube and the meter stick.
Start with plenty of slack.
Rapidly jerk the stick to the side at an angle of 20o above the horizontal.
The tube spins as the string unravels.
Magnus effect.
See diagram 18.3.6: Magnus effect.
The Magnus effect (Bernoulli effect) will make the tube takeoff and fly in a "loop-the-loop".
Wind the string so that the tube will have a backspin when the string is snapped.
Be careful! Practice the jerk in an empty room.
You can substitute a 2 m long, 4 cm wide strip of cloth in place of the string.
13.2.11 Blow ping-pong ball from cup to cup
Put two cups 2 cm apart on the table.
Put a ping-pong ball in one cup.
Blow obliquely into the cup containing the ping-pong ball towards the side nearest the second cup or blow in air from a vacuum cleaner outlet.
The blown air with high pressure pushes the ping-pong ball up out of the cup.
The low pressure flowing air above the two cups guides the elevated ping-pong ball towards the second cup.
13.2.12 Card and cotton reel spool, lifting plate
See diagram 13.1.4: Cotton reel.
1. Insert a thumbtack (drawing pin) through the centre of a 7 × 7 cm piece of cardboard or a playing card.
Place the card on the table with the pin pointing vertically up.
Blow through the centre hole of a cotton reel spool to remove any obstruction.
Hold the cotton reel spool over the card so that the pin points up through the centre of the hole in the spool.
Pick up the card and spool, holding the spool with your left hand and holding the card up against the spool lightly with your right index finger.
While blowing down constantly through the spool, remove your right index finger.
Raise the spool and the card lifts as well.
The card appears to stick to the cotton reel.
Air moving through the inside of the spool is at a lower pressure than the air outside the spool.
Atmospheric pressure pushes the card against the end of the spool.
2. Show lifting plates by blowing air out radially out between two horizontal plates.
The bottom plate supports weights hung from it.
3. Spin out the air.
Mount a disc hanging horizontally from a spring scale just above an identical disc.
Start the lower disc spinning and the spring scale shows an increase in force.
13.2.13 Coanda effect, spoon touches a water stream
See diagram 13.2.27: Coanda effect.
The Coanda effect, Henri-Marie Coanda (1885-1972), is the tendency of a fluid stream to attach itself to an adjacent surface and follow its contour.
The fluid stream follows a gently curving surface when it emerges from a nozzle.
Pockets of low pressure turbulence form between the curving surface and the fluid stream to cause the stream to stick to the wall.
The fluid stream jet is pulled onto the curved surface by the low pressure region that develops as entrainment pumps fluid from the region between the jet and the surface.
(Entrainment is to pull or drag along in a current).
The jet is held against the wall by the resulting pressure gradient that counterbalances the jet's internal resistance to turning.
The Coanda effect has been used to increase the lift of aircraft by using flaps on the wings to bend down and accelerate the air flow and decrease pressure due to the Bernoulli's principle.
The Coanda effect has also been used to make spinning "flying saucers", e.g. the "Vectron UFO Flying Saucer" and windshield washers without moving parts.
The Coanda effect allows aircraft wings to bend airflow and change the amount of lift.
In hydroelectric power stations, the Coanda effect allows water to keep close to the curved surface of a ramp before reaching the turbines, leaving potentially damaging objects and tree branches to fly off the end of the ramp and not reach the turbines.
Experiments
1. Hold a spoon by the end of the handle so that it hangs down with the convex side of the spoon bowl close to a water stream from a tap.
Move the spoon so that the bowl starts to enter the water stream.
You can feel a force pulling it further into the water stream.
The accelerated flow of water over the spoon bowl creates the force.
The curve of the spoon is similar to the side of a venturi.
2. Open a carton of milk or a can of oil.
Slowly tip the carton so that it is ready to pour the milk.
The free surface of the milk is raised relative to the surface at the opening creating a pressure difference that will force milk from the carton.
However, there are also surface tension forces acting on the milk that tend to force the milk towards the surface of the carton.
At low pouring speeds the surface tension forces are great enough to stop the milk from clearly leaving the carton and instead remain partly attached to the bottom of the opening lip.
The milk just dribbles down the side of the carton.
At high pouring speeds the force caused by difference in pressures is much more than the surface tension forces and the milk leave the carton asp a parabolic jet.
However even during high speed pouring from a full carton when air enters the carton with a "glug" noise to replace air lost during the pouring, the resulting vortices in the milk allow momentarily.
3. Hold a finger near a jet of the water stream as it emerges from a tap.
Observe the deflection of water around the finger.
Turn on a laboratory tap so that the falling water stream drops into a shallow container.
Close the tap to produce the thinnest possible water stream before the end of the water stream breaks into drops.
Hold your index finger with nail vertical or a cylindrical rod, so that just touches the side of the water stream near where it falls into the container.
The water stream curves around the finger.
4. Place a drink-can or drinking glass or plastic drink bottle between yourself and a lighted candle on the bench.
Blow air on the middle of the drink-can.
The air curves around the drink-can and the candle flame flickers and may be extinguished.
The current of expired air wraps around the curved surface.
Replace the drink-can with a square bottle.
Blow air on the middle of the square bottle.
The flame does not even flicker.
5. Blow air from a vacuum cleaner at a large cylindrical can, e.g. a waste paper can or garbage can.
Use a light piece of paper to find the direction of air around the large can.
13.2.14 Deep breathing exerciser
See diagram 13.2.26: Deep breathing exerciser.
A patient sucking air into the mouth at a rate of 600 cc per second can raise the first ball to the top of the cylinder.
Air rushing past the ball creates a partial vacuum above the ball, so it moves up.
At the top of the cylinder, the first ball blocks the outlet and remains at the top of the first cylinde.
This occurs, because of the partial vacuum in the passage leading to the tops of the three cylinders.
A patient sucking air into the mouth at a rate of 900 cc per second can raise the second ball to the top of the cylinder.
A patient sucking air into the mouth at a rate of 120 cc per second can raise the third ball to the top of the cylinder.
.13.2.15 Flowing air can do work
See diagram 3.1.4.2: Bunsen burners.
The Bunsen burner is an application of Bernoulli's law.
It has a small jet at the base of the burner that delivers gas under pressure.
The drop in air pressure around the gas in the tube cause air to be pushed in through adjustable inlets by atmospheric pressure.
13.2.16 Lift from spin
Lift from spin, swerve ball, curve ball, golf balls, Bjerknes' tube
See diagram 13.2.7: Swerve ball, curved ball.
1. When there are different airs at different flowing speeds between the two sides of an object, there will be difference in pressure, thus the travel path of the object will become inclined.
A ball can spin without wind.
A ping-pong player may make the ping-pong ball spin and move ahead at the same time when the player "peels" or "pulls" the ball with the bat.
A badminton player may make the shuttlecock spin and move ahead at the same time by use the racquet.
A footballer may kick a "banana" ball for a corner kick, "bend it".
A volleyball player may serve a "floating" ball.
When a ball spinning moves ahead, the difference in pressure between the two sides of the ball, because of the different flowing speeds of the air changes the travel path of the ball.
It may not only prolong the distance the ball travels in the air and may confuse the opponent who may not even catch the ball.
2. Observe a curved ball trajectory.
Throw a curve ball with a Bjerknes' tube.
Cut 20 cm down the centre of a cardboard cylindrical mailing tube.
Remove one side of the cut tube and close the other end of the tube.
In the cut end attach a 20 cm long lining of sandpaper.
A track covered with sandpaper helps give a ball lots of spin.
Put a Styrofoam ball into the tube and let it fall down inside the tube to the closed end.
Grab the tube near the closed end then swing the tube to make the ball travel up the tube.
When the ball reaches the sandpaper at the other end of the tube the ball will begin to spin as it leaves the tube.
Throw a ping-pong ball with a paddle covered with sandpaper.
Use a shaped launcher lined with Styrofoam to launch curved balls.
Throw a polystyrene ball with a shaped launcher lined with emery cloth.
3. Wrap 5 turns of string around a cylinder made of cardboard.
Do not to leave any space between turns.
Lay the cylinder at the edge of a tabletop and the end of the string under the cylinder.
Hold the end then quick jerk the string so that the cylinder falls and spins at the same time.
Observe the motion of the cylinder.
Repeat the experiment by letting the cylinder fall from the edge of the table without spinning.
Observe the motion and compare with the previous experiment.
The above experiment shows that a spinning cylinder may increase upward force.
When the cylinder spinning falls, the friction between it and the air, at one side, hinders the flowing of the air at the other side.
So the flowing speeds of the air at the two sides of the cylinder are different.
According to Bernoulli's principle, the pressure in a moving fluid decreases as the velocity increases.
So there is difference in pressure between the two sides of the cylinder and the upward force forms.
4. Throw a polystyrene ball with a V shaped launcher lined with emery cloth.
5. Wrap one metre of cloth tape around the middle of a mailing tube and give a jerk.
The tube does a loop-the-loop.
13.2.17 Pitot tube
See diagram: 13.2.18: Pitot tube.
Air flow can affect fluid levels in a manometer.
The apparatus consists of two tubes, one surrounded by another in which there is a number of holes.
Thus one tube has its aperture directed upstream and the other directed across the stream.
Each tube is connected to an arm of the manometer.
The pressure difference in the tube is given by the difference h in the level of the liquid and the velocity of the fluid stream, v = 2 g h.
Blow air into the Pitot tube inlet and observe the difference in levels in the two vertical tubes of the manometer.
13.2.18 Skipping stones on water, "ducks and drakes" game
1. Stand at the side of a lake and throw a flat stone so that it spins rapidly while hitting the surface of the water at an angle of about 20o.
The rotation stabilizes the stone against the torque of the lift applied to the back of the stone, so it bounces off the water and continues in the same direction until it hits the water again.
Eventually, after lower and lower bounces, the stone sinks in the water.
The record is supposed to be 51 skips.
2. In the children's game called "ducks and drakes" children compete on who can achieve the most bounces.
The term "ducks and drakes" also means throwing away a chance, i.e. not stopping to take advantage of the situation, but keep going until you sink.
3. Skipping bullet
An American can shoot a bullet from a rifle to bounce off water and hit a target.
The angle between the surface of the water and the curved front end of the bullet is about 4o.
13.2.19 Soccer balls
The "Teamgeist" soccer ball used in the 2006 World Cup was almost perfectly round with grooves between the panels.
The grooves scatter air particles and create turbulence close to the ball.
The "Jabulani" soccer ball used in the 2010 World Cup is similar, except that the grooves have tiny ridges that keep the turbulence close to the ball for a longer time.
So instead of air leaving the ball at an angle of 90o from the ridges, it leaves at 120o from the ridges producing a smaller wake and less drag, so the ball holds its speed longer.
However, some players report that when kicked for a long distance, the ball behaves in odd ways that cannot be predicted.
13.2.20 Venturi flow meter
See diagram: Venturi flow meter.
See diagram 13.2.0.1: Venturi flow meter.
The Venturi flow meter has a U- tube manometer connected across two places
with different cross-section.
Bernoulli's equation states that the pressure is reduced where the cross sectional area is narrower for horizontal fluid flow.
The pressure difference between these points is seen in the flow meter.
13.7.0 Venturi tube, fly spray, chimney effect
(G. B. Venturi 1746 -1822, Italy)
See diagram 13.1.6: Venturi tube.
See diagram: Fly spray, atomizer.
See diagram 13.2.6: Chimney effect.
Observe the action of the chimney effect by blowing a jet of air across one end of a U-tube.
1. Make a Venturi tube
Use two glass tubes or two transparent drinking straws.
Put one tube in a half glass of coloured water.
Put the second tube at a right angle with the first one so that the ends of the two tubes are close together.
Blow through the horizontal tube and observe the water level in the second tube.
Moving air has less pressure than stationary air.
Air is moving over the top of the vertical tube, so the pressure in this region is less than atmospheric pressure.
Thus, atmospheric pressure pushes water up the tube.
2. Use a Venturi meter.
Use a manometer to measure the pressure difference between the restricted and unrestricted flow in a tube
3.. Fill the beaker about 3/4 full with water and add a few drops of ink and stir.
Cut a long drinking straw half across, fold it over the uncut side.
Hold the shorter part with your left hand and insert it into the coloured water.
Hold the longer part with your right hand horizontally.
Hold white paper vertically opposite the horizontal straw.
Blow into the horizontal straw and adjust the distance until the coloured water can wet the white paper.
Water goes up the vertical straw when you blow.
By blowing through the horizontal straw, the speed of flowing air gets faster and the pressure gets lower, Bernoulli's principle.
As the pressure at A is smaller than that at B in the diagram, then this pressure difference makes the water move upward in the vertical straw.
4. Perpendicular airflow in a chimney can create lift.
Fix a vertical perspex tube as a chimney above a beaker of light particles.
Use a vacuum cleaner to blow a jet of air to pass just above the chimney and at a small angle to the horizontal.
The particles rise up the chimney and move across the room.
To get the strongest result hold the vacuum cleaner nozzle just 1 mm above the level of the particles leaving the chimney.
13.3.1 Hydraulics, hydraulic lift, Pascal's hydraulic press, Bramah press
See diagram 12.5.0: Hydraulic press.
Hydraulics is the study of the flow of fluids.
The principle of Pascal's hydraulic press is used in hydraulic machines, car jack, car brakes, wool press and to raise freight and passenger lifts.
Pascal's principle states that pressure applied to an enclosed fluid is transmitted equally and undiminished in all directions throughout the fluid.
So a force applied to a small area piston is transmitted through an enclosed
liquid to a large area piston that moves with a larger force.
In a car brake, foot pressure on the brake pedal is transmitted mechanically to the piston of a master cylinder.
It transmits pressure to front and back brakes in the wheels through the brake fluid.
Pistons in the wheels push the brake shoe with attached brake lining against the brake drum to increase friction between the brake lining and brake drum.
This action can slow or stop the car.
Machines may use different forms of petroleum oil as the working fluid.
Experiments
1. Connect a rubber hose to a motor car hand pump and bind the connections with wire and adhesive tape.
Connect the other end of the hose to a water tap.
Fix a weight to the handle of the pump.
Turn on the water tap and see the water pressure lift the weight.
2. Connect a 2 m vertical glass tube to a hot water bottle and sit on the hot water bottle and watch water move up the vertical glass tube.
3. Use a hydraulic press with a pressure gauge to break a board or compress a large spring.
4. Blow into the mouths of two hot water bottles that support a person to lift up the person.
13.3.2 Hydraulic ram, water ram, water hammer
See diagram 12.277: Hydraulic ram.
See diagram 12.2.18: Hydraulic ram pump.
Hydraulic ram, water ram
A flowing stream of water operates them.
A large quantity of water that falls from a small height pumps a small quantity of water through a large height.
A hydraulic ram lifts water higher than the supply.
Hydraulic rams are used to raise water from a low level to a higher level.
They are operated by a flowing stream of water so need no power source, but they may be noisy!
A hydraulic ram or impulse pump is a device that uses the energy of falling water to lift a much smaller amount of water to higher elevation than the source.
Water flows from the source through the drive pipe and escapes through the waste valve, "clack valve", until it creates enough pressure to suddenly close the waste valve.
Water then flows through the delivery discharge valve into the air pressure vessel where it compresses trapped air.
When the pressurized water reaches equilibrium with the trapped air it closes the delivery discharge valve.
Pressurized water then flows from the air pressure vessel and up the delivery pipe to the destination storage tank.
The closing of the delivery discharge valve causes a slight vacuum that allows the waste valve to open again.
The cycle repeats many times per minute, depending upon the flow rate.
A hydraulic ram is cheap to build, easy to maintain, and very reliable.
It does not need any fuel.
The air pressure vessel contains air between the pump and the delivery pipe to cushion the shock when the waste valve closes and improves the efficiency by allowing a more constant flow through the delivery pipe.
The difference in height between the water source and the pump site is called vertical fall or delivery head.
The difference in height between the pump site and the point of storage or use is called the lift or supply head.
The hydraulic ram is suitable for flowing streams with steep slope where some water is needed at a higher place.
Water hammer
A water hammer is a pressure surge caused by the kinetic energy of water when it is forced to stop suddenly.
Moving water in a pipe has kinetic energy proportional to the velocity of the water × mass of water in a given volume.
For this reason, pipe flow velocity below 1.5 m / s are recommended.
In home plumbing, you may hear a loud bang resembling a hammering noise.
Stand pipes open at the top may be added to water systems to provide a cushion to absorb the force of moving water.
Experiments
1. Make a model hydraulic ram.
Remove the bottom of a plastic drink bottle.
Fit the bottle with a one-hole rubber stopper carrying a short length of glass tubing.
Connect the glass tubing to a glass or metal T-tube that has a piece of rubber tubing on one end and a jet tube connected to it with a rubber tube.
Fill the bottle with water and pinch the tube at the end.
Let the water run from the end of the tube.
Stop the flow suddenly by quickly pinching the tube, and note the height to which the water squirts from the jet tube.
Let the water flow and stop alternately, and you have a working model of the hydraulic ram.
2. Use a plastic bottle from which the bottom has been removed.
Fit the bottle with a one-hole rubber stopper carrying a short length of glass tubing.
Connect this to a glass or metal T-tube that has a piece of rubber tubing on one end and a jet tube connected to it with a rubber tube.
Fill the bottle with water and pinch the tube at the end.
Let the water run from the end of the tube.
Stop the flow suddenly by quickly pinching the tube, and note the height to which the water squirts from the jet tube.
Let the water flow and stop alternately, and you have a working model of the hydraulic ram.
3. Use a plastic bottle with the bottom has been removed.
Insert a one-hole stopper fitted with a glass tube bent at a right angle.
Use a rubber tube to connect to one arm of a glass T-tube.
The open end of the centre part of the T-tube points upwards.
Connect the other arm of the T-tube to a rubber emission tube.
Pour water into the plastic bottle while holding the end of the emission tube.
Observe the water spouting from the T-tube.
Let go of the emission tube so that water flows through it and not water is flowing up through the T-tube.
Hold the emission tube suddenly again.
This stops water flowing up through the T-tube and water spouts up from the centre of the T-tube again.
The height of the flowing water is higher than the original height and flows with more force.
Let the water flow and stop alternately and rapidly, you have a working model of the hydraulic ram.
If elasticity of the emission tube exerts a great influence on height and strength of flowing water, you can remove the emission tube, use your index finger and middle finger to squeeze the T-tube, then
press
the T-tube with the thumb directly.
13.3.3 Raising heavy weights by water pressure, hydraulic lift
See diagram 12.5.2: Raise a girl, raise books.
See diagram 12.274: Raise heavy weights with water pressure.
Use a rubber hot water bottle.
Put a one-hole stopper carrying a short glass tube tightly in the neck.
Punch a hole in the bottom of a plastic container and make it large enough to take a one-hole stopper.
Put a short piece of glass tubing through the stopper.
Connect the water bottle and the container with 1.25 m of rubber tubing.
Wind wire or adhesive tape firmly around the connection at the bottle.
Fill the bottle, tube and can with water.
Place the bottle on the floor and put a heavy object or a little girl on it.
Raise the plastic container above the level of the floor.
The heavy objects or the little girl rise.
Note how heavy a weight you can lift by raising the plastic container.
13.3.4 Water cannot be compressed
Fit a bottle with a one-hole stopper fitted with a glass tube or a medicine dropper passing through it.
Fill the bottle with water until overflowing.
Insert the stopper tightly until the water rises slightly in the glass tube or medicine dropper.
Grasp the bottle in your hands and squeeze as hard as you can.
Water rises in the tube, because you cannot compress water.
By simply filling the bottle and inserting the stopper, so that water rises in the glass tube would show that water cannot be compressed.
[Some teachers have tried this experiment several times, but cannot get the desired effect.]
13.5.0 Syringes for investigating air pressure
"Vacuum Container & Pump", reduced pressure increases balloon size, (toy product)
"Vacuum Stoppers", creates near vacuum in plastic syringes (toy product)
See diagram 12.4.3.2: Force pump.
[Some school systems do not allow the use of syringes in the classroom.]
1. With the tip sealed, use a syringe to compress air or to produce a partial vacuum.
Attach a small piece of plastic tubing to let you seal the tip with a pinch clamp or seal the syringe by pushing the tip into a wooden block drilled to the appropriate size.
With this base as a platform, use the syringe in a vertical position as a balance for measuring weight by air compression.
You can quantify all the following experiments, because syringes are already graduated.
2. Fill the syringe with a small amount of air and hang it inverted to serve as a "spring type" balance.
When the tip is sealed, use the syringe to compress the air or to produce a partial vacuum.
Attach a small piece of plastic tubing to allow you to seal the tip with pinch clamps.
Seal a syringe by pushing the tip into a wooden or plastic block that has been drilled to the proper size.
With such a base as a platform, use the syringe in a vertical position for applications such as serving as a balance for measuring weight by air compression.
3. Fill the syringe with a small amount of air and hang it inverted to serve as a "spring type" balance.
4. Compress moist air within a syringe to cause water condensation and form "artificial rain".
5. Attach a piece of plastic tubing 20 or 30 cm long to make a simple syringe pump.
Put water in the tube to make an air thermometer or use 12 metres of tubing to make a water barometer.
6. Syringes and air pressure.
See diagram 12.301: Syringes and air pressure.
Couple two syringes with a piece of tubing to show pressure changes within closed systems.
You can easily quantify all these experiments, because syringes are already graduated.
7. To show compressibility of liquids, fill a syringe with water and then, having made sure no air is present, seal the outlet with the finger and try to move the plunger.
You cannot you move it.
Draw some air into the syringe.
Seal the outlet with the finger and try to move the plunger.
You can move the plunger, because air can be compressed.
8. Connect two syringes of different sizes and you can feel the pressure difference.
9. Compare water / air compression in a syringe.
You can compress a syringe filled with air with a large weight, but you cannot similarly compress a syringe filled with water.
10. Put water in the tube to make an air thermometer or use 12 m of tubing to make a water barometer.
13.3.5 Machine moving up and down, "perpetual motion" machine
See diagram 12.5.5: Moving up and down.
To investigate the transfer of mechanical energy, fix two pulleys on a wall or a metal stand.
Use a coffee jar lid with a hole, about 1 cm diameter.
Attach the end of a string to the middle of the cover and the edge of the lid.
Attach a weight to the other end of the string.
Use two pulleys to hoist the lid at the left side and hoist a weight at the right side.
Connect a hose to a water tap.
The hose should be just long enough ft to reach the lid.
Turn on the tap and let water stream into the lid.
The lid moves down and hoists the weight.
The water from the tap cannot reach the lid.
Water streams out of the cover through the hole in the lid.
The lid will rise to the original position by the pull of the weight until water from the tap can reach the lid again.
The lid will move up and down continually if the water tap is not turned off.
13.6.1 Poiseuille flow
Poiseuille's formula for volume of liquid per second, Q, with viscosity n, flowing with laminar flow through a capillary tube length L and radius R under pressure P is Q = πPR4 / 8 L n.
The formula is used to describe the apparent viscosity of non-Newtonian fluids, e.g. fluid polymers.
(The CGS (cgs) unit "poise" comes from J. L. M. Poiseuille, 1799-1869, France, not French: pois, weight).
Experiment
Drop coloured glycerine on top of clear glycerine in a square cross-section tube and open a stopcock at the bottom to adjust the flow.
Watch the interface between clear oil on the bottom of a glass tube and coloured oil on top as you drawn oil off the bottom.
13.6.2 Rayleigh-Taylor instability
Rayleigh-Taylor instability occurs when heterogeneous fluids with very different physical properties are placed over another, e.g. honey over milk.
Air bubble rising in a tube of Prell shampoo shows Rayleigh-Taylor instability
13.6.3 Reynold's number
Reynold's number (Osbourne Reynolds 1842 - 1912) (no dimensions), is the ratio of pressure forces to viscosity forces in a fluid flow.
It is important in the study of fluid dynamics.
Re = d v d / n, where d = density of fluid, viscosity n, travelling at velocity v in a pipe diameter d.
If Re < 2000, flow is laminar.
If Re > 2000 flow, is turbulent.
In laminar flow, streamline flow, the layers do not mix except at the boundaries
In turbulent flow, the motion of particles varies rapidly, often in eddies, e.g. liquids with high Reynold's numbers and in boundary layer of aircraft where high drag occurs.
Reynolds realized that the tendency of water to form eddies increases with temperature, which in turn is related to viscosity.
Experiments
1. Introduce tracer fluid into a tube at the bottom of a reservoir with tapered nozzle.
Vary the flow in a tube and introduce a tracer into the flow.
Use a funnel to feed methylene blue into a vertical tube with adjustable water flow.
2. Let water with potassium permanganate flow through a vertical tube.
Vary the flow is and find the rate by timing or by collecting water for a given time.
13.6.4 Turbulent and streamline flow
1. Construct a streamline flow apparatus that uses several potassium permanganate tracers from a source point to a collection point.
2. Demonstrate laminar and turbulent flow.
Introduce an ink jet at different rates into a tube of flowing water.
Vary the velocity of a stream of ink in smoothly flowing water.
3. Observe laminar and turbulent flow shadows.
See how rising warm air flowing around objects produces shadows.
Put a hot iron ball in slowly or rapidly moving air in laminar and turbulent flow.
Use the Kreb's apparatus to show flow of water around objects.
4. Use streamline flow to blow out a candle.
Place a lighted candle on one side of a beaker and blow on the other side of the beaker to extinguish the candle.
13.6.5 Water stream from a tap, faucet
Observe how the continuous water stream from the tap becomes thinner with distance from the tap.
It may become so thin as to break into water drops.
The water molecules bind together to form the column of water, because of hydrogen bonds.
However, when the thinning water column breaks into droplets the droplets
keep their "muffin shape", because of hydrogen bonds.
If filling a narrow necked container, e.g. a bottle, from a tap it is easier to fill the bottle by holding is lower down where the water stream is thinner and the air can easily leave the bottle as the water displaces it.
13.8.0 Vortex
"Airzooka", vortex of air (toy product)
"Tornado Tube", joins plastic drink bottles, spiralling vortex (toy product
Vortex, vortices (plural)
A vortex is an eddy where part of a fluid rotates with intense spiral motion.
Experiment
1. Grow a large drop.
A vortex is formed in an air stream allowing one to form a large water drop.
2. Liquid vortex.
A drop of inky water is allowed to form on a medicine dropper above a beaker of water.
The vortex will rebound if the beaker is less than 10 cm deep.
3. Ring vortices on liquid.
Bursts of coloured water are expelled from a glass tube in a beaker of water.
Also, a drop of aniline sinks in a beaker of water.
4. Detergent vortex.
A few drops of detergent in a jar of water are shaken and given a twist to form a vortex lasting several seconds.
5. Tornado vortex.
Open tap at base of column of water.
Water starts to spin then pressure drop at centre of surface, curves downwards then a vortex forms almost down to the bottom.
Also, a vortex forms in a large cylinder of water on a magnetic stirrer.
6. Smoke ring vortex.
Tap smoke rings out of a coffee can through a 2 cm diameter hole.
Tap smoke rings out of a can with a rubber diaphragm on one end and a hole in the other end.
A rubber sheet at the back on a large wooden box is struck with a hammer to produce smoke rings capable of knocking over a plate.
Fuming HCl and concentrated ammonia produce the smoke rings with LP gas.
7. Tornado tube.
Couple two soft drink bottles and spin the top bottle so the water forms a vortex as it drains into the bottom bottle.
13.4.1 Cornstarch, cornflour slime, isotropy and thixotropy
Isotropy is when a fluid becomes firm when agitated, e.g. running over wet sand makes the sand mixture firmer, but when you stop running your feet sink into the sand.
Thixotropy is when a fluid mixture becomes less firm, e.g. more fluid, when agitated, e.g. strike the end of a tomato sauce (ketchup bottle) to make the sauce become more liquid and run out.
Also, if you agitate quicksand, the sand mixture becomes more liquid and you sink more quickly.
Cornflour is powdery starch synthesized from maize and used as a cooking thickener (in USA "cornstarch") (in Australia "wheaten starch").
Cornflour slime, is cornstarch dissolved in water to form a viscous near solid white fluid, which you can pick up.
However, it flows easily when not under pressure.
Cornflour slime is a dilatant, shear-thickening fluid (STF), but it is not a rheopectic fluid, because it does not show time-dependent change when sheared, time-dependent viscosity.
The more pressure is applied, the more resistance to deformation.
Stir thickening (shear-thickening) mixtures become viscous when pressure is applied.
Viscosity increases with increased stress.
A suspension of 2 parts of cornstarch to 1 part of water is called "oobleck" or sometimes "ooze".
Experiments
1. Put 1 cup of cornflour in a bowl, add 1/4 cup of water then stir to form a thick paste.
Knead the mixture to make it firm as long as you keep mixing.
If you punch the mixture you can hurt your hand, because the pressure on the cornflour paste causes tit to become solid and even crack.
After you have stopped kneading push your fingers very slowly through the mixture.
Raise your fingers and see the mixture pour through your fingers.
Cornflour slime ("gloop", "oobleck") can be stirred, punched, poured and rolled into a ball.
It is an example of a non-Newtonian fluid.
The rate at which it flows is affected by shear forces as well as temperature.
2. Add water to cornstarch in an aluminium basin.
Sir it slowly then quickly, then pour it out of the basin then back into the basin.
Punch it and hit it with a hammer.
Pull out a handful then throw it to shatter against the wall, then collect the pieces.
3. Mix custard powder with water while stirring until it feels strange when you squeeze it with your hand.
The custard should stick to your finger.
Push a spoon handle through the custard mixture so that it leaves a clean cut groove that swiftly fills with liquid custard again.
Pick up some custard mixture and roll it into a ball between your hands.
It feels slimy if you mixed it well.
Keep moving the custard so that it forms a ball.
Stop moving the custard ball and becomes a liquid.
Custard powder contains finely ground cornflour, colouring and flavouring.
The cornflour particles link together if you put pressure on them, but will separate when the pressure stops.
If you keep squeezing, the links join and the custard stays in a ball.
The pressure of the spoon handle causes a clean cut, but as soon the spoon handle passes, the custard becomes liquid again.
4. Walk on cornflower paste!
The structure of cornflour paste is irregular-shaped particles separated by water.
The particles can move around if the mixture is gently stirred.
However, if pressure is applied to the mixture some of the water moves sideways and the particles touch, lock together and the mixture behaves as a solid.
So you can walk quickly or run on cornflour paste.
Cornflour is used to thicken soups, because the cornflour grains open when heated to release long starch molecules that tangle together forming a gel-like structure.
5. Convert cornflour paste from being shear-thickening to being shear-thinning, thixotropic.
Dilute a thick paste with water and heat the mixture.
Starch molecules are released and the paste become thixotropic.
6. Add 1 tablespoon of cornflour to a can of condensed milk in a saucepan.
While cooking on low heat, keep stirring until the mixture thickens.
Then leave to cool.
13.4.2 Density balls in beans
A ping-pong ball in the middle of a beaker of beans will rise when the beaker is shaken.
The size of an aluminium ball determines whether it goes up or down in a shaking bowl of beans.
13.4.3 Reynolds' dilatancy
Compacted granular material, e.g. sands and soils, may expand in volume when sheared.
The compacted grains interlock and cannot move around.
When sheared, a lever motion occurs between grains to cause a bulk expansion of the material.
However, loose granular material may initially compact when sheared.
13.4.4 Rising stones, granular mixtures, Brazil nut effect
Sometimes round stones come to the surface of loose soil and this may be caused by a type of convection cell in the soil.
Rising of rocks in soil is the same mechanism as the sifting down of fine particles to the bottom of a cereal box.
Granular mixtures separate according to particle size.
This is called the Brazil nut effect, because some people say the tin a can of mixed nuts the largest nut, Brazil nuts, are always on top, especially if the can has been shaken recently.
Similarly nuts will rise to the surface of muesli mixtures.
This phenomenon may be caused by greater drag on small particles by friction with air, because, in a near vacuum, all particles, regardless of size rise at the same rate.
Observe stones appearing in well-dug soil.
Experiments
1. Shake a cereal box of corn flakes and observe the larger flakes appearing to rise.
2. Shake a box of mixed muesli and observe the larger particles appearing to rise.
13.4.5 Shear-thickening, stir-thickening, dilatant fluids, rheopectic fluids
Some sols gel rapidly when gently agitated.
The stir-thickening depends on the rate that force is applied.
Shear-thickening, dilatancy, shows an increase in viscosity with shear stress and strain, e.g. uncooked cornstarch paste where shear stress squeezes the water from between the starch granules allowing them to grind against each other.
This property is utilized in tomato sauce where flow is prevented under small shear stress, but then catastrophically fails, producing too great a flow, under greater stress (shaking).
"Shake, shake the ketchup bottle,
First none'll come, and then a lot'll".
William Richard Willard Armour (1906 - 1989)
Bouncing putty, silly putty, is both stir thinning and stir thickening.
Whether it thickens or thins depends on the rate at which force is applied.
The application direction of force determines the effect the force has on fluids.
The pumping and storing of stir thickening liquids presents different problems to normal fluids in factories that produce products such as soups and paints, tar that melts and flows on hot days, paints designed to be non-drip, and hair gel.
1. Dilitant fluids, when stressed, increase resistance to further stress by increasing the shear rate, e.g. wet beach sand, polyvinyl chloride.
2. Rheopectic fluids have a time-dependent change in viscosity so the longer the fluid undergoes shear, the higher its viscosity.
The more you shake it the thicker it becomes, e.g. some clays containing gypsum, printers inks and lubricants.
Asphalt splinters when smashed, but flows gradually.
13.4.6 Shear-thinning, stir-thinning, thixotropy
Fluidity is the reciprocal of the viscosity.
Pseudoplastic materials instantaneously decrease in viscosity with increase in shear strain rate, e.g. they flow, and are therefore easier to pump and mix.
They are shear-thinning.
This is often a consequence of high molecular weight molecules being untangled and oriented by the flow.
This behaviour usually increases with concentration.
Thixotropy is reduction of viscosity due to applied stress.
Thixotropic liquids show a time-dependent response to shear strain rate over a longer period than that associated with changes in the shear strain rate.
They may liquefy on being shaken or stirred and then solidify (or not) when this has stopped.
Applied stress lowers viscosity that return to normal when stress is releases, e.g. gel to sol then sol to gel.
The thinning depends on the rate of force applied.
Some clays and polymer fluids and mixtures are thixotropic.
Hair gel flows when it is stirred, and thickens when it is not stirred to produce a hairdo.
Ink in ball point pens is a stir thinning liquid that thins under pressure.
Toothpaste flows when force is applied, but thickens when it is not under pressure.
Toothpaste is designed to flow from a tube, but not flow off the brush.
Non-drip paint is a stir thinning liquid.
13.4.7 Tomato sauce, ketchup, catsup
Tomato sauce used to be a stir thinning liquid.
Fill a Super Soaker (water gun) with ketchup then shoot it across the room and it blobs on the wall.
Tomato sauce is a thixotropic liquid that shows a time-dependent response to shear strain rate over a longer period than that associated with changes in the shear strain rate.
Thixotropic liquids may liquefy on being shaken and then may solidify when the shaking stops.
So when you hit the bottom of a tomato sauce bottle some of it liquefies and spurts out then solidifies again.
Banging a tomato sauce bottle down on the table only projects the tomato sauce by its own inertia deeper into the bottle.
"Shake and shake / the catsup bottle / none will come / and then a lot'll.", by Richard Willard Armour, (US, 1906 - 1989)
Experiments
1. Invert the open bottle over food and hold it tightly forming a fist around the end of the bottle.
Hit the fist with the wrist of the other hand.
Some sauce will be ejected from the bottle.
2. Shake the closed bottle to break weak bonds between the starch molecules in the tomato sauce.
Open the bottle and invert it over food.
Some tomato sauce drops down onto the food.
3. Hold the closed bottle in one hand and rapidly
hit the side of the bottle with the open fist of the other hand to cause vibration of the
tomato sauce inside.
Open the bottle and invert it over food.
Some tomato sauce drops down onto the food.
4. Open the bottle and poke the sauce vigorously with a chopstick. Invert the bottle it over food.
Some tomato sauce drops down onto the food.
5. Remove the metal cap of the bottle and place it in a microwave oven for up to 15 seconds to lessen the viscosity of the contents.
Invert the bottle it over food.
Some tomato sauce drops down onto the food.
13.4.8 Viscosity of Newtonian fluids
Fluids can flow and to take on the shape of their container.
High viscosity fluids do not flow easily.
Low viscosity fluids do flow easily, e.g. honey and water have different viscosity.
A fluid does not have a fixed shape.
Liquids and gases are both fluids.
The behaviour of fluids can be explained in terms of the arrangement and energy of the particles of which they are composed.
Viscosity is the rate at which a fluid flows.
Different fluids have different viscosity.
The viscosity of Newtonian fluids is affected only by temperature.
With Newtonian fluids, e.g. water and solutions of low molecular weight solutes, viscosity is independent of shear strain rate.
A graph of shear strain rate against shear stress is linear and passes through the origin, so you can call Newtonian fluids "linear fluids".
The relationship between viscosity with concentration is generally linear up to viscosity values of about twice that of water.
This dependency means that more extended molecules increase the viscosity to greater extents at low concentrations than more compact molecules of similar molecular weight, e.g. amylose, carboxy methyl cellulose, arabinoxylans and guar.
Let two flat plates, area A, separated by a layer of fluid, thickness D, move with velocity V, relative to each other.
The rate of shear, shear rate = V / D.
If a force F is applied to each flat plate, the shear stress = F / A.
In a Newtonian fluid, F / A = mu × V / D, where mu = Newtonian viscosity.
13.4.9 Viscosity of non-Newtonian fluids
The viscosity of non-Newtonian fluids is affected by shear forces (stirring) as well as temperature.
The gel and flow properties of hydrocolloids may change.
Thermogelling materials gel above a temperature and are usually reversible.
Above certain concentrations, hydrocolloid solutions show non-Newtonian behaviour where their viscosity depends on the shear strain rate.
The viscosity depends on the cross-section area in the direction of flow.
At low flow rates, long and thin solute molecules have effectively large cross-sections, because of them tumbling in solution, but at high shear strain rate the molecules align with the flow, giving much smaller effective cross-sections and hence much lower viscosity.
Many hydrocolloids are capable of forming gels of various strength dependent on their structure and concentration plus factors such as ionic strength, pH and temperature.
The combined viscosity and gel behaviour (viscoelasticity) can be examined by determining the effect that an oscillating force has on the movement of the material.
With viscoelastic hydrocolloids, some of the deformation caused by shear stress is elastic, e.g. contortion of the chains into high energy conformations and will return to zero when the force is removed.
The remaining deformation, e.g. the sliding displacement of the chains through the solvent, will not return to zero when the force is removed.
Under a constant force, the elastic displacement remains constant whereas the sliding displacement continues, so increasing.