Fluids Experiment: Show

Relationship Between Water

Pressure and Depth
by Ron Kurtus (revised 19 March 2009)

You may have noticed when you swim underwater, that the deeper you go the
greater the pressure on your ears. You've also probably seen how deep-sea
divers must protect themselves against the water pressure at greater depths.
This may get you curious as to how to verify the relationship between water
pressure and depth.

Finding the relationship between water pressure and depth can be an idea for
a science project in the area of physical science. The biggest problem is in
measuring water pressure. A clever way to demonstrate increasing water
pressure is by showing how far it will squirt from an opening.

Questions you may have include:

•What is the purpose of the experiment?

•What research must be done?
•What is the experiment?
This lesson will answer those questions.

Purpose of experiment
The purpose of the experiment is to demonstrate how water pressure
increases with depth. You can also make some rough measurements to show
an approximate relationship between depth and water pressure.

Research and factors

It is good to research the physical laws with respect to what pressure is, as
well as the concept of increasing pressure in a fluid due to the weight of the
fluid. One other research item concerns the relationship between water
pressure and how far a stream of water would squirt.

Pressure is force per unit area. At any point in a fluid, the pressure is the same
in all directions. Water pressure at a given depth in an open container, such as
a swimming pool, is shown by the equation: P = gh, where
 •P is the water pressure
•g is the acceleration due to gravity
•h is the depth of the water at that point
•gh is g times h

Experiment
You know that as you turn up the pressure in a hose, the water squirts out
further. So, there is a relationship between pressure and how far the water
squirts.

If you had a container with a hole in it, and if it is true that pressure increases
with depth, then the water should squirt out further the higher the water level.
You could show this by having one hole and measuring how far the water
squirts as you change the depth of the water in the container, or you could put
several holes at different heights and show how the water squirting varies.

Note: If you use several holes, they all should be the same size. As you will
see in the next experiment the hole size is another variable. You don't want to
mix variables in an experiment.

Materials
•Large tin can or plastic milk bottle.
•Hammer and nail
•Ruler

Water squirts further at greater depths

Steps
1.Punch holes in side of the container at one inch intervals.
2.Fill the container with water.
 3.Measure the distance from the container that the water squirts out of
each hole.
4.Plot a graph of depth (distance of hole from top of water level) versus
distance water squirts from can.

Keep records
If this is going to be an experiment for a science fair, you will need to record
your activities in a log book.

Draw conclusions
This experiment should verify that since the water squirts out further with
increasing depth, that the water pressure increases with depth.

Write report
Write up a report to summarize your results and your proposed solution to the
problem.

Summary
Since you noticed that the deeper you go in water the greater the pressure on
your ears, you can perform an experiment to verify the relationship between
water pressure and depth. The biggest problem is in measuring water
pressure. A clever way to demonstrate increasing water pressure is by showing
how far it will squirt from an opening.

Fluids Experiment: Show

Relationship Between Spigot Size
and Fluid Velocity
by Ron Kurtus (revised 16 November 2012)

You may have noticed that when you squirt water from a hose, you can make
the water squirt faster and further by covering part of the end of the hose with
your thumb. From this observation, you can guess that the smaller the size of
the opening, the faster the velocity of the water or the greater the distance it
squirts for a given pressure. This may get you curious as to how to verify the
relationship between water velocity and size of opening or spigot size.

Finding the relationship between velocity and spigot size can be an idea for a
science project in the area of physical science. You can do the experiment
by seeing how far water squirts from different sized holes at a given depth in a
container. You can then take data to establish the relationship.

Questions you may have include:

•What is the purpose of the experiment?

•What research must be done?
•What is the experiment?
This lesson will answer those questions

Purpose of experiment
The purpose of this experiment is to show the relationship between spigot size
and the velocity of water. Velocity is determined by how far the water squirts.
Data is taken to compare spigot hole size and velocity.

Research
Some of the research you can do is to see if others have done a similar
project. This may give you ideas about how to perfect your experiment. You
also need to know basic physical principles and laws.

Part of your study of fluids shows that the pressure is in all directions and is
proportional to the depth of the fluid or liquid in an open container. Thus, the
pressure on water in a container is the same for any opening at a given depth.

Experiment
You want to keep everything equal—such as the pressure—while you vary the
opening size.

Water squirts further from small hole

Materials
•Plastic milk or soda bottle.
•Knife or scissors
•Ruler

Steps
1.Cut several holes in side of the container at the same height. These
holes should be different sizes. (This is not easy to do.)
2.Fill the container with water.
3.Measure the distance from the container that the water squirts out of
each hole.

Outcome
This experiment should verify that the smaller the area of the opening, the
further the water squirts. If you were able to measure the diameter—and thus
the area—of the holes, you could calculate the relationship between area and
velocity for a given pressure.

Summary
You may have noticed that when you squirt water from a hose, you can make
the water squirt faster and further by covering part of the end of the hose with
your thumb. From this observation, you can guess that the smaller the size of
the opening, the faster the velocity of the water or the greater the distance it
squirts for a given pressure. This may get you curious as to how to verify the
relationship between water velocity and size of opening or spigot size.

There are a couple places where pressure is pushing against the card. First the atmospheric pressure or the
tiny air molecules all around us are randomly colliding with the bottom of the note card. This pressure holds the
card up, but why doesn't the weight of the water push the note card down? Isn't the weight of the water enough
to overcome the atmospheric pressure pushing against the card? That's what most people would think, but if
you look at the top of the glass of water (formerly the bottom), you'll notice a small pocket of air. Actually there
isn't much of an opportunity for air to get into that space, so what we've created is a small pocket of low
pressure. There are more air molecules pushing up against the bottom of the note card, creating a higher
pressure area compared with the lower pressure area inside the air pocket in the glass. The force from the
atmospheric pressure holds the card up and the low pressure zone in the glass prevents the water's weight
from pushing the card down.
 Adhesion occurs because water molecules, having the positive and negative ends, are also attracted to
other materials. In the experiment, the water molecules are attracted to the paper, adhering to it, while
continuing to keep the surface tension with the other water molecules. This keeps the note card in place.
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