Pressure

07 October

Pythagorean Cup

Seng Kwang Tan 3D Printing, IP3 05 Density and Pressure, Pressure 0 Comments

This is a 3D printed Pythagorean cup, otherwise known as a greedy cup, where if one pours far too much water or wine or whatever your greedy heart desires, all the contents in the cup will leak out through the bottom.

This is based on the design by “jsteuben” on Thingiverse (https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:123252). The siphoning effect kicks in when the water level is above the internal “tube” printed and hidden into the walls of the cup.

I printed another cup based on a more conventional design as well, but due to the wrong settings given when I prepared the gcode file, the cup was rather leaky when the water level was low. This design by “MonzaMakers” has a protruding siphon tube. (https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:562790)

Explaining how the siphon works is easier with the second cup. When the water level is lower than the highest point in the siphoning tube, it remains in the cup. When it exceeds the highest point of the tube, water begins to flow down the part of the tube leading to the opening at the bottom of the cup. The falling water column creates a suction effect and continuously draws the rest of the water in, until the cup is dry.

23 July

Magdeburg Hemispheres

Seng Kwang Tan IP3 05 Density and Pressure, Pressure 0 Comments

As promised, I am sharing another purchase made during this mid-term break for my kids.

Magdeburg hemispheres are used to demonstrate the power of atmospheric pressure. This simple demonstration kit consists of two plastic hemispheres, a rubber ring, a one-way valve, a syringe and some rubber tubing.

First, the one-way valve and the syringe are attached to the hemisphere that has a nozzle.

The two hemispheres are then placed together with the rubber ring between them. The rubber ring will serve as a seal as the hemispheres press against it when the air is pumped out.

As the syringe is pulled, the pressure inside the sphere decreases. This results in the atmospheric pressure being significantly larger than the internal pressure and thus, the hemispheres can not be pulled apart by hand.

To separate the hemispheres, remove the tubing and the hemispheres will simply fall apart as the internal pressure rises and reaches an equilibrium with atmospheric pressure.

The kit can be bought for less than S$3 here. There are other sellers that seem to offer lower prices, which I realised while doing a search for the keywords “Magdeburg Hemispheres” only after making the purchase because I was thinking it could not get any lower.

02 December

Does Hydrostatic Pressure Depend on Container Shape?

Seng Kwang Tan IP3 04 Forces, Pressure 0 Comments

The following GeoGebra app simulates a pressure sensor that measures hydrostatic pressure, calibrated to eliminate the value of atmospheric pressure.

The purpose of this simulation is to address certain misconceptions by students such as the assumption that the shape of a container affects the pressure such that the pressure differs in different containers when measured at the same depth.

Drag the dot around to compare the pressure values at the same height between both containers.

The following codes can be used to embed this into SLS.

<iframe scrolling="no" title="Hydrostatic Pressure" src="https://www.geogebra.org/material/iframe/id/wbjduxt7/width/640/height/480/border/888888/sfsb/true/smb/false/stb/false/stbh/false/ai/false/asb/false/sri/true/rc/false/ld/false/sdz/false/ctl/false" width="640px" height="480px" style="border:0px;"> </iframe>