Continuous motion fountain with bottles

Basic concepts

Physics	Forces	Gravity	Weight
Engineering	Air pressure	Fluid dynamics

The following is an introduction:

Many times it is difficult to understand how, in this case a source, can operate without the help of an external motor, with this experiment we will check how simply with the help of the force of gravity and pressure, we can operate a source in continuous motion.

Scientific basis

In this experiment, we're going to have three containers connected by small tubes. The first thing we need to do is fill the middle container, so that once we start pouring liquid into the upper container the source starts working. Once we start pouring liquid into the upper container, it will begin to descend through the tube into the lower container by the effect of gravity, as the liquid enters the lower container, it reduces the space in which the air was contained, so the pressure increases, as the lower container and the intermediate container are communicated, that pressure will begin pushing the liquid from the intermediate container up through the tube to the outlet of the source in the upper container.

Materials

• The safety glasses.
• The safety gloves.
• 3 plastic bottles.
• Two fish tank tubes.
• Food coloring.
• Jar with 700ml of water.
• Stick to move the water.
• Two straws.
• The scissors.
• Cutter, please.
• It's an adhesive gun.
• It's a hole punch.

Conducting the experiment - steps to follow

1. We stick two bottle caps together and make a hole in the middle.
2. We insert a straw through the hole of the plugs and paste it (if the straw is larger than the bottle we cut it a little).
3. We thread two bottles into the caps we have glued (this way the bottles will stay together).
4. From the remaining bottle, we cut off the neck part (about 10 cm) and paste it on the bottom of the bottle with the straw inside.
5. We will make a hole in the bottom, near the cap, of the neck of the bottle that we glued in the previous step.
6. We'll make a hole in the bottom of the bottle that doesn't have a straw.
7. With the help of the adhesive we will join the two holes that we made in the previous steps.
8. We'll drill a new hole in the bottle that holds the straw, near the plug.
9. We'll insert the straw we're left with into the unused tube.
10. We're going to insert with the help of the adhesive this last tube, on the opposite side of where we inserted the straw, through the hole we made in the step
11. the straw will be glued to the side of the cut bottle, bending the tip slightly so that the liquid falls into the cut bottle.

The procedure

1. We add the dye to the water.
2. We put the fountain upright with the bottle opening cut up.
3. We start pouring the liquid into the cut bottle, see how it starts flowing down the tube and filling the bottom bottle.
4. When it is sufficiently full we turn the fountain so that the water passes from the bottom bottle to the middle bottle containing the straw.
5. Once the straw bottle is full, we turn the fountain back on.
6. We start pouring liquid again over the bottle cut from the top until the liquid starts coming out through the straw that ends up in this same bottle

Observation and results

We can see how the source works continuously thanks to the force of gravity and pressure without the need for us to contribute any external force.

Pick it up!

Make sure you leave everything clean and tidy once you're done with the experiment. You can flush the water (with or without dye) down the drain and put the bottles in the container. Put back the tools and other utensils you need.

Adult supervision and safety first

• Follow the experiment instructions carefully.
• A responsible adult should help with each experiment.
• While home science experiments are very interesting ways to learn about science in a hands-on way, keep in mind that some may require participants to take extra safety precautions and/or not leave everything to chance.
• Adults should handle or help with sharp or potentially harmful materials or objects.
• Adults should review each experiment and determine the appropriate age for student participation in each activity before conducting any experiment.