Some water siphon experiments

It was hot today, so we decided to play with water.  We ran a few experiments testing how long it would take different dimension hoses to drain a 5 gallon bottle using a siphon. 

A 30′ length of 2″ pool cleaner hose took less than 5 seconds, and made an amazing low gurgle as the siphon took told and the water hurled down the hose.  The force was enough to knock the water bucket off the top of the car several times. 

A 2′ length of 1″ hose drained the bottle in 15 seconds. 

A 3′ length of 1/4″ hose took more than 6 minutes.

A 30′ length of 1/8″ hose took more than an hour at which point the bottle was still 1/4 full and we called the time. The kids really enjoyed this diameter as it was a good steady trickle of water that kept going forever and was good to run down your back and cool off with.  Able wants us to install this one on the front porch.

We also tested filling the PVC air cannon with water, bringing it to 60psi with air, and then releasing the 2″ ball valve.  This cannon was designed to the higher compress-ability of air, and the water sort of just gurgled out.  It does, however, produce a nice chilly mist when the air comes out of compression and expands.  I suspect if we made a dedicated water cannon with a much smaller diameter valve, that would produce the air pressure required to shoot the water more dramatically.  It’s currently designed to just dump a bunch of air into the barrel, which is great for shooting the missile, but not so good for pushing liquid water.