December 23, 2019
Description
This is a 3d printed, miniaturized version of an experiment I once saw. There is a large version of this at the air and space museum.
The disk with the pipe is held so that the hole points down with the disk at the bottom. A straw is placed in the hole. The experimenter blows through the hole and brings a disk up to the cylinder. The plain flat disk with no fences will adhere to the cylinder instead of falling to the ground, defying gravity, though it will tend to slide off to one side. You can play with creating fences that will prevent this.
The Disk with an X on it will still allow the air to expand radially and will thus lift to the plate. It will stay put a bit better as the fences will be touching the disk, preventing the slippage.
The other disk have different fence layouts. Some will prevent radial expansion and thus prevent lift... If Bernoulli's principal was the cause of the lift, would the shape of the fences matter?
Experiment with the other disk. Which fences do you think will still allow the disk to stay levitated?
License:
Creative Commons - Attribution
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