Heron's fountain Heron's fountain is a hydraulic machine invented by the 1st century AD inventor, mathematician, and physicist Heron of Alexandria. Heron studied the pressure of air and steam, described the first steam engine, and built toys that would spurt water, one of them known as Heron's fountain. Various versions of Heron's fountain are used today in physics classes as a demonstration of principles of hydraulics and pneumatics. Construction In the following description, call the 3 containers: (A) Basin (top) (B) Water Supply (middle) (C) Air Supply (bottom) Heron's fountain is built as follows: Start with a basin (A), open to the air. Run a pipe from a hole in the bottom of that basin (A) to an airtight air supply container (C). Run another pipe from the top of the air supply container (C) up to nearly the top of the airtight water supply container (B). A pipe should run from almost the bottom of the water supply container (B), up through the bottom of the basin (A) to a height just above the basin's rim. The fountain will issue upwards through this pipe. Operation: Initially, the air supply container (C) should contain only air; the water supply container (B) should contain only water. To start the fountain, pour water into the basin (A). The water from the basin (A) flows by gravity into the air supply container (C). This water forces the air in (C) to move into the water supply container (B), where the increased air pressure in (B) forces the water in (B) to issue out the top as a fountain into the basin (A). The fountain water caught in the basin (A) will drain back to the air supply container (C). The flow will stop when the water supply container (B) is empty. Motion Heron's fountain is not a perpetual motion machine.[1] If the nozzle of the spout is narrow, it may play for several minutes, but it eventually comes to a stop. The water coming out of the tube may go higher than the level in any container, but the net flow of water is downward. If, however, the volumes of the air supply and fountain supply containers are designed to be much larger than the volume of the basin, with the flow rate of water from the nozzle of the spout being held constant, the fountain could operate for a far greater time interval. The gravitational potential energy of the water which falls a long way from the basin into the lower container is transferred by pneumatic pressure tube (only air is moved upwards at this stage) to push the water from the upper container a short way above the basin. The fountain can spout (almost) as high above the upper container as the water falls from the basin into the lower container. For maximum effect, place the upper container as closely beneath the basin as possible and place the lower container a long way beneath both. As soon as the water level in the upper container has dropped so low that the water bearing tube no longer touches the water surface, the fountain stops. In order to make the fountain play again, the air supply container is emptied of water, and the fountain supply container and the basin are refilled. Lifting the water provides the energy required. it is simple to make and displays many of the basic principles of physics. This project shows how potential energy can provide power, using water and gravity, and air and compression. These are fundamental aspects of pneumatics and hydraulics and Heron's fountain also lets you have a bit of fun during the process. The History of Heron's Fountain Heron's Fountain (Creative Commons) The great Greek inventor, Heron of Alexandria (sometimes called Hero) created this device as one of his wonderful ways of showing students how the underlying physical and mathematical principles worked. Historians are almost certain that Heron (c. 10 CE - c. 70 CE) taught at the great university of Alexandria, Egypt, and used many of his inventions as teaching aids. You now have the chance to follow his example, by using this apparatus to show your classmates physics in action. Building Heron's Fountain Heron's fountain was probably cast from bronze, at great expense, but we are going to make one from much simpler materials, easily found around the home or in a local hardware store. What You Need: A plastic basin Two plastic soda bottles Flexible plastic tubing, often used for aquariums Two plastic jars with plastic lids A stand for the basin Silicone or some other waterproof sealant Procedure The water in the basin contains gravitational potential energy and, as it falls downwards, it uses the pneumatic pressure of the air in the air supply container to push the water in the upper, fountain supply container. Once the water drops below the level of the outlet tube in the fountain supply, the Heron fountain will stop. This experiment has lots of variations and many different ways of building depending upon time and resources. If you make one, why not film it and upload it to YouTube - you never know; we might just decide to feature it here! Your basin will need to be raised, as it must be higher than the two bottles. You may have something that you can modify, or you can make one from Meccano as shown in the video. Make a hole in the bottom of the basin, just big enough for the tubing to fit through. Push a 24" - 36" length of tubing through and seal with the silicone. Make two holes in the lid of one of the plastic containers. This will become the air supply container and must be the lowest part of the apparatus. Heron's Fountain (Creative Commons) Push the tubing through one of these - it must reach almost to the bottom. Insert another piece of tubing through the other hole - you only need to push about an inch of tubing through the hole. Make sure that the seal around the tube is airtight, using the silicone sealant. Take your second container and make two holes through the lid of this one. This will become the fountain supply container and must be filled with water Take the plastic tubing coming from the first container and push it through one of the holes. This only needs to be pushed in about an inch. Cut a final length of tubing and insert this into the second hole, pushing it in almost to the bottom of the container Use the silicone to fill the gaps around the tubing. The fountain supply container must be higher than the air supply container This third length of tubing needs to run back to the fountain, as in the video - you can try to build a waterwheel, if you want! Slowly fill the basin with water and watch as water flows from the basin into the air supply container, through gravity. This will displace the water in the second container and cause it to shoot out of the tubing back into the fountain, higher than the original basin. If you want, you can insert the tubing running from the fountain supply container back into the basin through a second hole, making sure that it protrudes above the water level, to create a proper fountain. How does it Work At first glance, this appears to be a perpetual motion device; a machine that can keep running forever. However, this is not the case and, as the air supply flask fills with water, the jet of water from the nozzle will decrease in power and stop altogether. To restart the machine, you will need to empty this container and refill the fountain supply container with water. The water in the basin contains gravitational potential energy and, as it falls downwards, it uses the pneumatic pressure of the air in the air supply container to push the water in the upper, fountain supply container. Once the water drops below the level of the outlet tube in the fountain supply, the Heron fountain will stop Things that are able to work independently, without any external source of energy, not so much, and a special place among them is Gerona fountain.Its main advantage is that it works through the natural laws of nature, not wasting a third-party power. In fact, it's not quite true - this is not a perpetual motion machine, and certainly not gratuitous source of energy.Such need regular fountain "recharge" - according to the design, it may be necessary every 15-50 minutes.In principle, it is a simple procedure that will require a person to swap a couple of tanks.This independent work interesting fountain Heron, an independent production. If rush clever terms, the basis for the work of Heron gidropnevmatiki principle - work on the expulsion of the water jet makes up the air and the liquid itself.Of course, the point here is not without gravity, whereby the necessary pressure is created in the fountain system.This fountain is composed of at least three tanks. Bowl.We call it the starting point - the start, with which the liquid begins its movement in the system of Heron Fountain.It is usually open container made by the type of bowls or plates.Therefrom through a thin tube in the water enters an empty container situated in the bottom of the fountain. Lower empty container.It serves two purposes.First, water flowing from the bowl compresses the air contained therein, thereby creating the pressure necessary for ejecting a jet of water upwards.And, secondly, the water collected in it, which generates this pressure (that is, one that flows downward).There it remains until the next recharge fountain. upper capacity - in the charged state it with water.It is this liquid and is pushed outwardly as a thin water jet.It pushes it through the compressed air - pressure formed in the bottom of the flask.The air on a thin tube into the upper flask, displacing fluid out that pouring fountain, falls back into the bowl, where, again, runs in the bottom flask. As you can imagine, this fountain will work as long as is consumed liquid in the upper container - then requires recharging, thanks to which this system has nothing in common withperpetual motion or an endless source of energy.Recharging Heron Fountain is elementary simple - complete the bulb (the one that was the bottom) is installed instead of the empty container, mounted on top of that, in turn, is placed instead of the full capacity.After recharging the fountain will be necessary to run - in the upper bowl will need to add a little water. As you can see, everything is quite simple, and no exception is even a fountain principle manufacturing Heron with his hands.In the elementary variant it is going out of plastic bottles and transparent tubes - naturally need a cup mounting structure and various little things, with which we will deal in the course of studying the issue of how to make a fountain Heron with his hands? In principle, it is the whole system of Heron's fountain.The only thing that you need to add here, so it's clarify a few details.Firstly, the whole system must have exceptional leak - there must be only a few open seats (out of the bowl and drain the fountain nozzle).And, secondly, the height of the jet of the fountain depends on the distance between the upper and lower tanks - the whole thing will have to customize on your own. How to make a fountain Heron: What can be improved said that there is no limit to perfection, and practically any thing can be upgraded to infinity - it is not so, but still room for improvement of any product is almost always there.Heron's Fountain in this regard is no exception - it is possible to upgrade to a lot of things. very first thing - is to increase the water flow.We have already said that it depends on the distance between the upper and lower capacity - you know what to infinity (or, at least, to the required torque) to increase this distance can not be obtained.There is one trick - if correctly paired two such systems of tanks and tubes, the minimum height of the jet will be doubled.In general, you will need not one, but two complete with two bottles of water and the same blank, interconnected tubes consecutively - full, empty and then full again and again an empty bank.Full top banks, empty bottom - otherwise will not work. Improve recharging system.In fact, not difficult to change places with the water tank, but it is much more attractive than it looks in the fountain if its recharging will be done at the lowest cost.The method may be many, but the most interesting is the one that you come up with on their own - without manual intervention can not do in any case, so the best option is not thinking through ways to recharge, and increase capacities to the maximum possible, and reducing the rate of water flow tothe same limits. Decorating.Due to the fact that the most popular decor is by far the lights, immediately raises the question, with its provision of electrical energy.Of course, the easiest way to connect a fountain into an outlet, but much more interesting to maintain energy independence of the fountain - believe me, it's not so difficult today.Use can be as solar panels and water movement.For example, a downward flow of water can be installed a water wheel, which is connected to a small electric current generator - it will be quite enough for the couple to light LEDs. In general, despite the fact that in general the Heron Fountain is a very thoughtful article, space for its improvement there is still a limit, and this place, apparently not.In conclusion, the theme remains to add that the principle described above can be made a lot of variety of systems ranging from small experimental models of fountains, to huge working models.With the latter, however, there is a charge problem to solve that very, very difficult without a pump or other ingenious devices of today. Hero's fountain is dramatic and one of the best demonstration of the topic "Liquids". A new simply constructed, easy-to-make demonstration of the Hero's fountain is presented. Its action is discussed on the basis of Pascal's and Bernoulli's principles. Equipment required to construct apparatus: To make the magic fountain you need three 2-liter plastic soda bottles, three rubber stoppers #3 with two ¼ '' (0.006 m) holes each, two pieces of plastic tubing about 2½' (0.8 m) long and ¼ '' glass tube about 3' (1 m) long. Description Figure 1 incorporates a schematic drawing for Hero's fountain. The fountain consists of three parts: a cup A with the fountain tube, and two vessels B and C. The parts are connected as shown in Figure 1. The vessel B is filled with water and the vessel C is empty. Cup A is placed on the vessel B and connected with the vessel C by a hose. Vessel B with the cup can be placed on a table and the other one under the table. When you pour water into the cup A, the water from the cup flows to the lower vessel C, which contains air, and produces the hydrostatic pressure P2 = rho g h2, additional to the initial atmospheric pressure Patm, of the air in the vessel C. As a result the pressure forces air up to the upper vessel and according to the Pascal's Principle the air transmits this pressure to the water in the upper vessel B. The pressure that air exerts on the water in the vessel B, oppose the atmospheric pressure and the hydrostatic pressure P1 = rho g h1 . Thus, the compressed air in the vessels B and C forces the water to spout out of the fountain's upper tube and drives the fountain. Hero's fountain is also a good demonstration for Bernoulli's principle. Let us consider again the fluid as an ideal, and determine the speed of the ejected water from the nozzle of the fountain. Use the Bernoulli's principle at the top of the water in the vessel B and the nozzle. The vertical motion of the top of the water in the vessel B is an insignificant. Therefore, the vertical speed of the water at the top in the vessel B is negligible compared with the speed v of the emerging stream of water from the nozzle of the fountain and Bernoulli's equation becomes Geological phenomena It is possible that geysers operate via this mechanism, with the distinction that the spouting of the water at the surface occurs discontinuously. Furthermore, unlike Heron's fountain, which requires that the air supply container be manually emptied of water, geysers have an analogous "air supply container" that is steadily heated by geothermal energy. When the water level in the air supply container becomes too high, the geothermal heat flux causes the water to boil off and therefore naturally empty the container of water and replace it with water vapor instead of air.