Size of orifice
The orifices were made by inserting a needle and
puncturing the plastic container, slowly increasing the orifice size with each
attempt. The orifices were then estimated according to the size of the needle
used for creating the orifice.
During the first attempt we wanted to observe the
phenomenon and see what happens when this parameter is changed. For example in
the following graph we changed the diameter of the orifice.
Graph 1: Rough height-diameter
dependency.
During the first try, we got some very inconclusive
results, alas a pattern was showing. There were not any backup experiments and
we had no error estimates, but noticed that as the size of the orifice
increased the phenomenon was less visible and effective. To better the
following results, it was agreed upon to measure the size of the
orifice/container with their radii rather than their diameter.
To understand the impact of the size of the orifice,
we had an experiment with 9 identical containers and repeated the experiment
twice for each container to get 18 attempts for each orifice. The containers
were not cylindrical, rather they were inclined, resembling a cone, without its
tip. We used water as the liquid of choice, and changed no other factors, other
than the radii of the orifices.
One
set of the collected data is represented here, as an example of how it varies
on its own:
Graph
2: Attempt number measurements.
From this we noticed that whilst the same device was
used to make the orifices, there is some variance in the results. Although it
is not very drastic, further investigation is required. This is likely caused
by human inaccuracy-which unfortunately cannot be avoided, but it can be
measured and used accordingly.
Once we plotted the data we saw a clear-cut
dependence.
The
following graphs show that:
Graph
3: The error bars on this graph represent the standard deviations of the data.
This is highly compliant with the
theoretical model, as we expected that there would be a reciprocal dependency
of the radii on the height. And there clearly is!