Hello, I'm Mrs Charles again back with another
science activity. We're going to build a siphon using empty water bottles and straws. Here is
what the siphon that we'll build today looks like. We'll add water, though, to see how it works.
Siphons can look very different from each other and they each do special things with water.
So, what is a siphon? Well it's a tube and the straw is the tube in this and it moves water
from one container to another. Siphons can move water downwards or upward
s. As an example, if you
had a huge fish tank that needed to be emptied, you could use a siphon. You would put a tube
into the fish tank and put the end of the tube lower into to a bucket and then you would
take the bucket and bring it to the sink so it would be easier to empty that fish tank. So, we
don't have a fish tank but we're going to show you how siphon works using this. So, you'll also see
the surprise which is water seeks its own level. [music] This is what you'll need to do the s
eek
and find project: a ruler, two straws that are bendable, green food coloring or you could use
blue or whatever color (just don't use yellow), a push pin, a pencil, two empty water bottles--
I'm using eight and or 16.9 fluid ounces but it doesn't matter as long as they're the same size,
and this one is an 8 oz-- it's a littler one which you need. You need one bottle cap to fit the
bottles and a plastic cup, a pitcher filled with water which you'll add food coloring to, a
pair of scissor
s, a spoon to stir the water and the food coloring, a Sharpie, and a paper towel,
and the last thing you'll need is a glue gun and glue. All right, I'm going to take scissors and
cut off the label of both my tall bottles. Now I take one of the bottles and undo this and
I'm going to take my ruler and measure about five inches and I'm just going to take
a marker and mark where that is. All right, there's my little mark. Now I take a push pin and just punch a little
hole, take my pencil in the
same hole and like that to make it fit about a straw size
and then I'm going to take my marker and mark around the hole just so that I can see where it is
next time because it's hard to see on these plastic bottles. Now take your second bottle and your ruler, measure
about 2 and a half inches from the bottom. Mark it with a pen-- a Sharpie. Make your
pin prick and then put your pencil in... and draw your circle around it
because it really is hard to see. Turn the bottle over exactly so tha
t it's uh right
on top of the other on the other side of the bottle, mark your two and a half inches. Okay... Here I can see because I marked it with the marker
where exactly it is and then mark this hole. Okay, on my small bottle I'm going to take off the... the wrapper and I'm going to-- now you'll need
a mom or a dad or an adult to help you do this. You're going to glue along the
bottom edge of the cup... and glue it right to the upside down plastic cup. Right like that. All right, now ta
ke your ruler, measure from the bottom of the
cup about 5 inches and make a little mark, right about there. And now take your push pin, prick the
hole, take your pencil and make a hole. Now, take your two straws-- and the long side, not the short side--
you'll want to measure and find the 6 inch which is right about here and you want to cut your straws like this. From this point on you will need adult help. Now, take your bottle that has holes on both sides and
your bottle that has the short
one-- the short bottle. Here's your straw, the bendy part, the
short side, goes towards the tall bottle. Stick the straw through and then stick the taller end through to the short bottle so it kind of looks like this and
you can bend this so that it-- it won't sit flat, this is fine. Take the straw, here's the bendy part, here's the long part, here's
the short part. Take the long part put it in the hole just like that. Take your third bottle which has only one hole, put
the short end of the
straw into this hole like that. Now, it won't, the middle bottle will
not be flat until you add water. You'll need to hold the bottles so the adult can glue
around both straws where they connect to the bottles. Just inspect it and make sure it looks
like there's glue around the entire hole. All right, you're going to put the lid on top
of the middle bottle and screw it tight. We're ready to add water. I filled my water pitcher
with water and added some green food coloring. Now pour water i
nto the tall side bottle. You're going to fill all the way up. When it fills the middle bottle... slowly keep adding water until the small bottle is filled. Now, all three bottles are filled. The straw siphons the water from the first bottle
to the second, like you were emptying a fish tank. It even siphons upwards into the smaller bottle. Now comes the fun part: let's unscrew
this middle cap and see what happens. What happened? All three bottles ended up having
about the same water level. Th
is shows that two or more containers or bodies of water, like bottles
or maybe even lakes, um that are connected, will have water levels that match each other.
That's because water seeks its own level. Well, I hope you and your family enjoyed this science project. Hopefully you learned a little about how to siphon
water and the concept that water seeks its own level. See you next time for another science experiment. [music]
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