hi i am jared. welcome to fun science demos. in a previous video we talked about what it takes to
create tornadoes and hurricanes in nature. today we are going to see if we can create a tornado in
water using nothing but an aquarium pump. so let us take a closer look at the materials we used to
make this demonstration happen. we are using a clear pitcher of water so that you can see
what is going on inside. we have an inexpensive aquarium pump. now, the aquarium pump probably
is going to come with tubing that you could use or could make work. we decided to go with
a a bigger tubing that fits over top of our aquarium pump, and then i just used a straw
that slides inside my tubing so i can change the direction of the flow of water.
and now i need an empty plastic bottle. we wanted something clear so you can see through it, and we
drilled two holes in the bottom of the bottle. the tubing is going to go through the one hole and the
other hole is going to be a drain hole which allows the water to drain out of the bottle,
hopefully creating our liquid tornado. the skewers - well they are just going to make sure our bottle
sits on top of our container. so let us assemble this and see if we can get our tornado
to work. so i am going to take the tubing and put it in the hole that is not in the center,
and to do that i am just going to slip it in. you want the hole to be kind of snug but it is okay
if it leaks a little bit. now it is important to realize that i can spin the bottle so that
the straw is angled right against the side of the bottle and that is going to help create the spin
to get our tornado. now i am ready to drop this into our container. i am going to turn
it so the spout helps me with the cord. if i put too much water and it is going to overflow
and it is going to get a little bit wet here. pull it up to the right height, get my skewers...
i might need to push down the bottle on the tubing just to get it just right .
so we have zoomed in so you can get a closer look at what is happening. once we start the aquarium
pump you can see my bottle is resting on my skewers, and if all goes well the water as it is
pumped into the bottle will drain out the center hole back into my pitcher, and i should have
a self-sustaining tornado. so let us start the aquarium pump and see if we can get our tornado.
you can see my bottle is starting to spin and if you look at the water i am getting a nice little
spin, and if you look right at the bottom of the bottle you can see a tiny tornado forming. so
you can see we have a self-sustaining tornado in our bottle. we actually had to swap out this pink
straw with a straw that is a tiny bit bigger so we could get more water into our bottle,
and you can see we have a self-sustaining tornado. now in nature it takes just the
right circumstances for a tornado to form and you might find it takes just the right circumstances
for your tornado to form in this bottle. if your drain hole is too big your tornado will not form,
if the drain hole is too small the tornado will not form. if your straw is too big or too small
the tornado will not form. it takes just the right circumstances. now i can not help but think what
happens if we switch out this wider bottle with a thinner bottle? i wonder if we would get a taller
tornado? so let us give that a try. so now i want to try a different bottle and for that i have to
use a bigger straw, so i swapped out to a yellow straw that is a bigger diameter, and i am using
a skinny bottle. i put a hole in the bottom of the bottle so now the water - i am going to turn
the bottle upside down - and the water is going to be coming in the top instead of the bottom,
and then the cap - i put a hole in the cap. now if this hole is too small i might not get
a spinning tornado, if the hole is too big it might drain the water too quickly and i might
not get a spinning tornado. so to make this work i am putting the straw in. i am going to have the
water drain out into my container and let us see if we can get a tornado to form by turning
on our pump. we have zoomed in so you can get a better look. now we will turn on the pump,
and as the bottle starts to fill, you can see almost right away we have our tornado forming,
and hopefully our bottle will start to fill up even more and we can get a longer tornado.
there we go - it is starting to fill up. a beautifully spinning tornado
that is going to continue to spin. and i can talk about what it takes for tornadoes to
form in nature - cold dry air mixing with warm moist air, and a thunder cloud forms, and when
the conditions are just right and that air gets spinning a funnel cloud touches the ground and
we have a tornado that is wild and dangerous but in a way beautiful. remember, we also have another
video where we made tornadoes using different techniques that you can click on and watch.
now let us try adding a few drops of food coloring and see what our tornado looks like.
it might take a while for it to pump up through. you can see our tornado changing colors.
we could turn it any color - blue red green yellow - pretty neat effect.
now the cool thing about science is that we can try different things to
see if we can get similar results. bigger tornadoes, smaller tornadoes,
what happens if i use a bigger bottle? what happens if i use a different shaped bottle? would
a square container work? those are all interesting questions that you can try at home. if you want to
learn more about tornadoes hurricanes or weather check out our links in the video description.
science is so cool, especially when it happens right in front of you. thanks for watching.