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Mariotte Bottle with Side Openings

Article in The Physics Teacher · September 2006

DOI: 10.1119/1.2336147

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Marian Kireš
Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice
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 A
for Teaching Physics
pparatus
Mariotte Bottle with Side Openings
Marián Kireš,
O ne of the applications of
Bernoulli’s equation studied in
introductory physics courses is that
of a liquid, such as water, flowing
from an opening in the side of an
open tank. The speed of the escaping
water is variable: it depends on the
height of the free water surface above
the opening, and this speed will
decrease as the water level drops.
A Mariotte bottle (Fig. 1) is a de-
vice that provides a constant pressure
that will deliver a constant rate of
flow. The flow rate will depend upon
the distance between the side outlet
and the bottom of the vertical tube
and not upon the height of the water
surface near the top of the bottle.
This fact may come as a surprise to
students who have done only the
standard studies of Torricelli’s theo-
rem. We focus here on a complete
conceptual understanding of the
physical principles involved, where,
in particular, the pressure inside the
bottle must be taken into account.
General Principle
The closed bottle has three side
outlets (Fig. 2a). Let us mark them
from the bottom of the bottle in as-
cending order as outlets (o1), (o2),
and (o3). Initially, all three outlets are
kept closed. A vertical tube is inserted
into the bottle through an airtight
120
Erlend H. Graf, Column Editor
Department of Physics & Astronomy, SUNY–Stony Brook,
Stony Brook, NY 11794; egraf@notes.cc.sunysb.edu
Faculty of Science, Šafárik University in Košice, Slovakia; marian.kires@upjs.sk
stopper with its lower end situated
between outlets (o1) and (o2). Ini-
tially, there is air at atmospheric pres-
sure pa over the water in the bottle,
and the water level inside the vertical
tube is identical with the water level
of the bottle. The upper end of the
tube is open to the atmosphere.
Water begins to flow when we
open outlet (o1), leaving outlets (o2)
and (o3) closed (Fig. 2b). This is the
most basic form of water flow from a
Mariotte bottle, which is well-known
from textbooks. At the level of the
lower end of the vertical tube, there is
a pressure pE:
pE = ρgh + pL, (1)
where ρ is the density of water,
g is the acceleration due to
gravity,
h is the distance between
the water level in the
bottle and the lower end
of the tube, and
pL is the air pressure over
the water level near the
top of the bottle.
As water flows out of the bottle,
pL (which originally starts at atmo-
spheric pressure pA) continuously
falls to lower and lower values, and
the water level inside the vertical pipe
Fig. 1. Mariotte bottle.
also drops. When pL reaches the criti-
cal value (pA – ρgh ), the pressure pE
at the lower end of the pipe becomes
equal to pA, and the water level inside
the pipe will have reached the lower
end of the pipe. Note that h is not
constant in this process, but dimin-
ishes because the water level in the
bottle falls as water flows out.
As more water flows out of the
bottle at (o1), bubbles of air will
escape from the bottom of the pipe
and rise to the top of the bottle. The
effect of this bubbling process is to
maintain pE = pA to good approxima-
tion, provided the size of the bubbles
is small compared with the size of the
bottle. Thus a constant pressure head
ρgh1 is maintained at (o1), so that
the speed v1 of the escaping water is
given by
v1 = 2 gh1 ,
(2)
THE PHYSICS TEACHER ◆ Vol. 44, September 2006

Fig. 2. Mariotte bottle with three side openings.
where h1 is the distance between
outlet (o1) and the lower end of the
pipe.
We open outlet (o2)
An unusual and counterintui-
tive phenomenon can be observed
if we open outlet (o2) while water is
flowing from (o1) in the manner de-
scribed above. Remembering that the
bottom of the pipe is at atmospheric
pressure, it is clear that the pressure
at (o2) will be less than atmospheric
pressure, and so water will not flow
out of this opening, but air will be
sucked in. At the same time, water
in the vertical tube will rise until it
reaches the level of (o2), and will be
maintained at that level by air bub-
bling into (o2) as water continues to
flow out of (o1). The flow rate v1 will
now be larger than the value given
by Eq. (2) because h1 has increased
to h12.
We open outlet (o3)
If we now open (o3), air will be
sucked into this outlet, and the water
in the vertical tube will rise to the
level of (o3), with dynamic equilib-
rium maintained at the new level in
a manner similar to that described
THE PHYSICS TEACHER ◆ Vol. 44, September 2006
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Apparatus
side the bottle is equal to atmospher-
ic pressure. When water is flowing
from the bottle, if another opening is
made at a point above the water level
in the tube, water does not flow out
of this opening but, on the contrary,
air is sucked in.
Reference
1. J. Cunningham and N. Herr, Hands-
On Physics Activities with Real-Life
Applications, 1st ed. (Jossey-Bass,
1994), pp. 242–243.
2. J.A. Maroto and J. de Dios, “Use of a
Mariotte bottle for the experimental
above. Water will flow out of (o1)
study of the transition from laminar
and (o2), with the flow rate at (o1) to turbulent flow,” Am. J. Phys. 70
being the larger of the two. (7), 698–701 (July 2002).
PACS codes: 47.10.-g, 62.10.+s
Ideas for Further Study
• Suppose the bottom of the verti-
cal pipe were located nearly at the
bottom of the bottle.What would
happen if we would then open
(o1), (o2), and (o3) in ascending
order?
• Could the shape and size of the
bottle and the diameter of the
vertical pipe be such as to cause
non-negligible fluctuations in the
exit speed of the escaping water?
• When air is sucked in through
(o2) or (o3), the water level in the
vertical pipe fluctuates between
two positions. Would it be possi-
ble to estimate the surface tension
of the water from these positions
and from the parameters of the
pipe?
Summary
This experiment demonstrates the
usefulness of the Mariotte bottle as
a device that provides water flow at
constant speed. The level of the wa-
ter in the vertical tube indicates the
depth at which the water pressure in-
121