Recent content by McQueen

You are all wrong in your reasoning, a human is not some infinitely small point, he/she occupies a definite volume and space. Take it from the last mile, or 1760 yds, which is covered in 1 hour. Then going on decreasing the distance the time increases , 2 hrs for the half mile, 4 hours for the...

Gsal, Brilliant! Loved the description and the explanation and I think that by now we are aware that a lot of sources are active in the working of a siphon. BUT I think that you have missed the main gist of my argument, which is to try to determine what forces are at work against the working...

Hi, I am a bit surprised that no-one has commented on the video link ! Surely this experiment proves conclusively that (a) minute variations in atmospheric pressure affect the working of a siphon ( all according to Newton’s Laws) (i.e., when a vacuum is created in the top most bottle through...

Patrick I haven't ascertained whether plants use valves in their system but animals do, I should think. So you never know! Granted that this is your subject, I am just musing as it were.Given that a tree trunk must have an enormous number of capillaries running through it, it is possible...

Hi, Here is a youtube link that demonstrates what I am saying: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70Smyiu09rY&feature=related"

Hi, Interesting topic. I agree with Nascent Oxygen. Take trees, wrap a plastic bag around a few of the leaves and you will find water in the bag after a few hours. While it is true that capillary action , like atmospheric pressure is restricted to about 30 ft, what about valves. Since the...

Gsal, It goes without saying that without gravity nothing would work. I was attempting to come down to causative factors. For instance in my example of the broken siphon, if gravity were the determining factor, water should flow out of container A under the force of gravity, there is seemingly...

Doc, I presume that there would have to be a certain volume of water to be dispaced in the first place, otherwise nothing makes sense.

Dave, I think even the mythbusters couldn't solve this, because volume comes into the equation! Buoyancy depends on the object displacing an equal volume of water, right. There is no way that you can compare the volume of an Ocean liner with the volume of water in a bucket !

Incidentally taking gsal's point of a tube with a 1 cm2 area. Suppose we had the Atlantic Ocean on one side and the 1 cm2 area tube on the other. Separated by a considerable slice of land and if the 1 cm2 tube was buried in the ground so that it had the same depth as the Atlantic Ocean and the...

Russ, Re your post #21, I have not stated that there will be a continuous flow of water. What I said was that water will flow out of pipe (d) creating a partial vacuum in container A causing water to flow into container A from container B through pipe (c) because of atmospheric pressure. But...

Russ, Taking the experiment you did in #20 and supposing the whole system is in a vacuum. The height of liquid in one beaker is 10 cms and the height of the liquid in the other beaker is 2cms. Since the experiment is being conducted in a vacuum, it is no use just sucking on the tube to create a...

gsal, Look I have said before and I will say it again GRAVITY has nothing to do with how a siphon works! Gravity only regulates the speed at which a siphon works AFTER all other forces, (i.e., atmospheric and hydrostatic) have been dealt with, and it is only when there is an imbalance between...

Russ waters, How can YOU (emphasis there) calculate the difference in pressure if gravitational force has nothing to do with it, since you follow Dr. Hughes and claim that a siphon works due to gravity. OK! since you insist, Take a simple situation of two beakers one filled with water to a...

Russ Waters, Let us take the ideal situation , say in near orbit to earth, where atmospheric pressure is absent, but gravity, albeit weakened, still exists. Will a siphon work? According to Newton, a resounding yes! Why? Even this weakened gravity (of the earth) would create a force...