Self-starting siphon

kill me I'm sure you know how to make a siphon it's fairly simple you get a tank of water put a hose pipe into it then you sack on the end of this hope so the water goes up and over and if you're lucky out and it should keep flowing as long as there's no air leak that gets into it so the top tank is empty but what a miss it can go everywhere and you can have several four starts and you may not much like the taste of what you're softening so there has to be a better way and indeed there is there's several bitter ways now known as self-starting siphon it's they're very interesting some of them are very simple that one for example as a self-starting siphon it's just a kink of tube glass tubing if I put my finger on the end here and low the lower the first leg into this tank of water notice that the water level comes right up to the edge of the tank that's important now let me take my finger off and you'll see that the water rises in that first league and overshoots it rises above water level here we get bang up it comes and bounces down again momentum carries it up above water level so if I do that again but bring the kink and the tubing right down to water level the water should go up and over and out there it is siphoning away a self-starting siphon with a bit of help from its friends that'll continue until the water level drops down to the first leg well let's not let it do that we'll take that out now put the water back so the water levels up to the edge again and look at a self-starting siphon which is a lot better because you don't have to put your finger over the end it's shaped like this it's very cunning in fact it looks very much like the letter M but the first hill here is slightly lower than a second hill and it's made of tubing that's not too thin that's important as well so letter in low Hill high Hill and this is what happens when you lower it in water climbs up there it comes roaring over there and has such speed when it gets to the bottom that it comes up and over and out and it starts the siphon itself least that's the theory let's see what happens watch it closely we lower it in water level comes up to that first bend over down around and out and it only just made it in fact it wouldn't have if that Hill were too tall or the water level weren't right up to the edge there so it's a pretty tenuous business but once it's got going it too will empty the tank until it gets down to the level of the first leg well bending glass like that is not easy so you can make this yourself out of straws as long as they are the flexi-straw type that's the sort of straw that has a little concertina kink in it and you can bend it over and shape it like that well if you want to put one of these into another and you have to do that that's three times for this this is a simple way you snip the end make a little cut about half a centimeter long that means that you can cross the edges over and make the end a bit narrow and that will then slip inside the next straw if you're careful it doesn't make a perfectly airtight tube like that but you can put sticky tape around it or push that little kink in and then Ram the straw up over it has to be airtight you can check it by blowing on one end while you block off the other that's pretty good and in fact what I've done is to make one like that you can see here it is the old classic M shape that little Hill slightly lower than this Hill and it's a fairly wide straw so let's take this one out empty the water back in there to get the water level up to the top again and dunk it in and with any luck we'll have a home-made self-starting siphon here guys kill me

Channel: CuriosityShow

Views: 2,361,912

Rating: 4.8837514 out of 5

Keywords: 70s, Rob Morrison, tv show, Hutton, Education, Science, Fact, australia, Deane, Morrison, julius, 1980s, how-to, wonder, children, science, experiment, Deane Hutton, Curiousity Show, savage, curiosity, how to, miller, Townsend, Curiosity Show, Puzzle, myth busters, mythbusters, Siphon, sumner, Kids, liquids, world, experiments, 80s, adam, Rob, 1970s, Simon, 1980, self-starting siphon, Mythbusters, Australia, Childrens, Myth, 1970, science experiment, latest, kids, STEM, life hack

Id: 4SEv_GxAo70

Length: 3min 49sec (229 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 08 2014

Reddit Comments

[u/Whitebabyjoker]

This is exactly the shit I wanna see on the internet.

[u/FigCatBunt]

CURIOSITY🎶🎶

[u/Mange-Tout]

My grandfather owned dozens of bent aluminum siphoning tubes that he used for irrigation purposes. I always wondered how he got the siphon started, because the tubes were far too large for a human to suck water through.

Edit: Five seconds later, Google provides the answer. How to siphon with big tubes.

[u/MedicalPartisan]

Might be useful during the apocalypse.

[u/AlexanderAF]

I remember a neighborhood I grew up in during the ‘90s where gas-theft was pretty common. Most cars didn’t have fuel doors that had to be opened from the inside, and my parents garage was so full of stuff that both cars had to be parked on the street.

My dad would walk outside to his car and in broad daylight there’s some low-life siphoning gas out of his car. He’d shout “hey, what are you doing?” or “what the hell?”, then watch in awe as they would casually pull the hose out, collect their belongings including what gas they stole, yell something illegible at him and wave their hand at him like they were dissing him, then start to slowly walk off shaking their head in disgust. Not run...just casually walk off. One even had a pillow for his knees.

The first time my dad called the cops. After a lengthy conversation they made it quite clear it was not worth their time. After that my dad just let them walk off. I think once he chased after a guy with a baseball bat, but that guy was much quicker than my dad...carrying a gas-can, hose, breath mints and all.

This video would probably make my dad get so angry his face would turn red.

[u/dragginFly]

Loved this show when I was a kid!

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Curiosity_Show

[u/madding247]

Metallica frontman "James hetfield" has started a small show on all things science. And today's episode - Self starting Siphons.

[u/[deleted]]

Put two bowls next to each other, each with its own straw and let them pour into each other's bowl through turbines. Unlimited energy.

[u/LearnerPermit]

Self starting siphon probably has neat applications in a lab or classroom setting but not much elsewhere. A bulb to start the siphon is so much safer. Gasoline and drums of chemicals is where most untrained and semi trained people use a siphon. Neither are safe to use by sucking on the hose.