By Selam
We decided to do an experiment from the STEM page in the St. Louis American newspaper. Our experiment was creating a hurricane in a bottle. First we tried to find out how long it would take for the water to get out into the bowl. We figured that when the water pours out, air comes in. If you squeeze the bottle, the water comes out faster from the air pressure. When you hold the bottle to the side and let a little water pour out, it took longer to pour out. There is always air in the bottle. The air added more pressure, so the water came out faster at the end.
Then we did the tornado in the bottle. At first, we had the bottle filled up with water. We added food coloring so we could see the vortex better. We spun bottle around, but didn’t get much of a vortex. Then we found that if we only fill the bottle halfway, there would more room for the vortex to spin. Our hypothesis was that if you had more air in the bottle, by decreasing the water amount, and by spinning the bottle, the water would create a better vortex. When we did, we got a full purple vortex that we could see clearly.
We now realize that vortexes are created every day in our homes. Some examples are toilets, sinks, bathtubs, and any drains.