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| Hi! How are you guys? I have an interesting question that I am struggling with. Here it is: Lets imagine that you have a length of bendable tubing, and you put some water in it and connect the two ends of the tube, making it circular. Everyone knows that the water that you put into the tube will always go to the bottom part of the circle no matter how you turn your circular tube in the vertical position. But why, when you take a clamp and clamp the tube in one area, you can turn the tube any way you want and the water stays in the same area, even if you turn the tube so that the water is on top. It will not fall to the bottom like it did when you did not have the clamp. I did this experiment and am wondering: Why does the water always fall to the bottom when you do not clamp a part of the circular tube; but when the tube is clamped, the water can be made to stay anywhere? Also, can I replicate the behavior of the water when the tube is clamped, without a clamp somehow? Thanks for your help!
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| Question Date: 2009-10-15 | | Answer 1:
To understand how this works, just think of the air that is trapped between the clamp and the water. Being unable to flow past the clamp, this air pushes the water up as you turn the tube. One thing you can try is to slowly release the clamp and watch the water come back down slowly. Cheers!
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