Is this possible? Non-electric trickle fountain based on siphon idea

[sealy]

Hi there! Has anyone ever heard of using a siphon to make a trickle
fountain? I haven't worked much with siphons and don't have a very good
grasp on physics but I thought with the right setup one might be able
to make a trickle fountain with a tall erect siphon,... kind of like
this Ascii illustration below, where the X's are the tubing and the
oo's is the water...? My main idea is to make a small fountain in the
backyard without using electricity...

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[Rodney Pont]

On 17 Jul 2005 10:09:53 -0700, sealy wrote:

>Hi there! Has anyone ever heard of using a siphon to make a trickle
>fountain? I haven't worked much with siphons and don't have a very good
>grasp on physics but I thought with the right setup one might be able
>to make a trickle fountain with a tall erect siphon,... kind of like
>this Ascii illustration below, where the X's are the tubing and the
>oo's is the water...? My main idea is to make a small fountain in the
>backyard without using electricity...
>
>........................................
>.........XXXXXXX........................
>.........X.....X........................
>.........X.....X........................
>.........X.....X........................
>.........X.....X........................
>.........X.....X........................
>.........X.....X........................
>.........X.....X........................
>.........X.....X........................
>.........X.....o........................
>.........X.....o........................
>.........X......o.o.ooooooo.............
>.........X.............................
>
What are the dots? A siphon only works when delivering water from one
level to a lower one. If you need to raise water you need energy.

--
Regards - Rodney Pont
The from address exists but is mostly dumped,
please send any emails to the address below
e-mail ngpsm4 (at) infohitsystems (dot) ltd (dot) uk

[Phyllis and Jim Hurley]

The down aspect will work fine. How do you get the water to the top?
Siphons work by having gravity pull the water down.

sealy wrote:
> Hi there! Has anyone ever heard of using a siphon to make a trickle
> fountain? I haven't worked much with siphons and don't have a very good
> grasp on physics but I thought with the right setup one might be able
> to make a trickle fountain with a tall erect siphon,... kind of like
> this Ascii illustration below, where the X's are the tubing and the
> oo's is the water...? My main idea is to make a small fountain in the
> backyard without using electricity...
>
> .......................................
> ........XXXXXXX........................
> ........X.....X........................
> ........X.....X........................
> ........X.....X........................
> ........X.....X........................
> ........X.....X........................
> ........X.....X........................
> ........X.....X........................
> ........X.....X........................
> ........X.....o........................
> ........X.....o........................
> ........X......o.o.ooooooo.............
> ........X.............................
>

[jonk]

I do not believe that a siphon will work for you as you suggest -- in
case you have not already tried with a mini-model of your own.

Siphons take water from one level to a lower level *only* thanks to
gravity and water's affinity for itself (surface tension is extremely
strong). it is this latter property that makes one molecule want to
follow the others out the lower end of a siphon once you get it
started, and that "pulls" the water along over the hump.

You are attempting to show the outlet side (where the o's start) to be
higher than the inlet. this is not a siphon -- unless you reverse it
:=)

you can experiment with a simple clear plastic tube and two glasses,
one filled with water to start and elevated on a physics book or two.
simply start the siphon by sucking on the open end to get the water
over the "hump" and then let the free end lower into the empty glass.
as the siphoning works, play with the outlet end in terms of its height
in relation to the inlet end in the glass of water. you will quickly
realize that, as you raise the outlet end above the inlet end, the
siphon will slow down and eventually stop.

now, you could certainly make a free-standing, siphon-based fountain
that could last "x" amount of hours or days given you had a big enough
reservoir that you re-filled every so often (you could even hide it
miles away and have it be much more than a trickle fountain). but you
cannot make a fountain that is self-contained and "energy-less."

Some cool links for gravity-fed fountains:
from 1840's: http://tinyurl.com/7ty7m
and from the 1720s:
http://www.peterhof.org/fount/


Phyllis and Jim Hurley Wrote:
> The down aspect will work fine. How do you get the water to the top?
> Siphons work by having gravity pull the water down.
>
> sealy wrote:-
> Hi there! Has anyone ever heard of using a siphon to make a trickle
> fountain? I haven't worked much with siphons and don't have a very
> good
> grasp on physics but I thought with the right setup one might be able
> to make a trickle fountain with a tall erect siphon,... kind of like
> this Ascii illustration below, where the X's are the tubing and the
> oo's is the water...? My main idea is to make a small fountain in the
> backyard without using electricity...
>
> .......................................
> ........XXXXXXX........................
> ........X.....X........................
> ........X.....X........................
> ........X.....X........................
> ........X.....X........................
> ........X.....X........................
> ........X.....X........................
> ........X.....X........................
> ........X.....X........................
> ........X.....o........................
> ........X.....o........................
> ........X......o.o.ooooooo.............
> ........X.............................
> -


--
jonk