How to make a fountain in a bottle

Making a fountain in a bottle at home

Is it pos­si­ble to pour wa­ter up­wards? In this ex­per­i­ment, you'll learn how to make a sim­ple foun­tain in a bot­tle.

Safe­ty pre­cau­tions

Ob­serve safe­ty rules when work­ing with heat­ed ob­jects.

Equip­ment

  • glass bot­tle;
  • plas­tic cap;
  • scis­sors;
  • spray bot­tle with tub­ing;
  • plas­ticine;
  • boil­ing wa­ter;
  • gloves;
  • a glass of cold wa­ter;
  • and dye.

Step-by-step in­struc­tions

Use scis­sors to make a 5 mm hole in the cap. Thread the hole with the tub­ing from the spray bot­tle so that the cap is ap­prox­i­mate­ly half­way along the tub­ing. Fill the bot­tle with boil­ing wa­ter and pour the wa­ter out af­ter one minute. Cau­tion! To avoid be­ing scald­ed, only touch the hot bot­tle with heat-re­sis­tant gloves! Pour the hot wa­ter out, cap the bot­tle im­me­di­ate­ly, and low­er the free end of the tube into a glass of cold, col­ored wa­ter. Ob­serve the for­ma­tion of a beau­ti­ful foun­tain!

Process de­scrip­tion

In a hot bot­tle, the air ex­pands and some of it is even forced out of the bot­tle en­tire­ly. As the air cools in the closed bot­tle, the pres­sure in the bot­tle de­creas­es, and the ex­ter­nal at­mo­spher­ic pres­sure be­gins to push wa­ter into the tube. This cre­ates a stun­ning foun­tain!

Try it