How to Make a Non Stop Heron's Fountain

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License

[nemod]

"Non stop" is a massive overstatement.

[superchazney]

"and restart the fountain" stop fountain....

[DeuceClubs]

A non-stop fountain that stops on its own. Marvelous.

[Poizon-]

The only reason why I watched this was because it's titled "non-stop" which is usually against the laws of physics? Pretty cool none the less but definitely not non-stop.

[TheIdeasGuy]

It sure is non-stop! (Until it stops, but we don’t talk about that).

[ftraider]

Heron's Fountain is often used as a simple educational demonstration of fluid dynamics, pressure, and the conservation of energy. However, it's important to note that Heron's Fountain doesn't create a perpetual motion machine or generate more energy than is put into it. The water flow eventually stops due to air entering the system, friction, and the loss of potential energy as water flows downward.

[Lisa-ummp]

Hi David, great instructional video. If you wanted a more forceful flow, would you make the bottles wider or the straws or tubing? I am making a small outdoor fountain and wll be drilling through a sculpture of a heron for the water to come out of.

[PackerBronco]

Great video. Made one based on your design. Just a few comments:
1) Get bottles with flat (or nearly flat) bottoms. Don't get the bottles that have the 5 or 6-star bases. It's more difficult to make that top cap airtight
2) Take off the labels before you begin constructing the fountain. I recommend goo gone and vegetable oil to remove all traces of the glue before you begin.
3) Trying to drill through the hard plastic base of the water bottle is difficult and frustrating; it's much easier with a soldering pen to melt open a hole and then you don't need a large hole, just two straw-sized holes to match the holes in the top cap,
4) A better way (IMHO) to splice the straws is with a diagonal cut; the straws can then be connected almost without needing glue,
5) Also use a diagonal cut on the ends of the straws as you thread them through the holes. Makes it a lot easier to pull them through and then once you have the straws threaded, trim to diagonal edge to make them even again.
6) Glue the **** out of that top cap between the seams and the base around the top cap, it's where you'll get the most air leakage. Also, enclose the glue seal in duct tape to add more protection. It has to be completely air tight because any loss of air pressure will cause the fountain to fail.
7) In addition to glue, wrap the middle double cap with duct tape - maybe multiple layered colors for a nice effect. It will make the double cap more firm and stable.
8) Dye the water with food coloring to make a cool fountain and for an even neater effect, fill the reservoir with blue-dyed water and pour in yellow-dyed water. As the colors mix you get a nice shade of green.

[AcoustiClub]

Non stop fountain, until our hand get tired 🤭
just kidding, it is a good science experiment.

[mani_]

Everybody is gangsta till drill showed up

[barbarab]

Brilliant, I wish science projects at school had been like this. I would have shown a lot more interest.

[babydollzxr]

That is so cool, thank you so much for explaining it also… when you got to filling the water part I thought to my self “oh no I’m gonna have a hard time getting this right” but then when you said “ let’s see how it all works“ I was so excited I really wanted to know how this worked

[wilfredovoss]

I had a “non stop” flight from California to Florida. We just took a break in Chicago for a couple hours

[natalien.]

"If you're uncomfortable using a drill for the hole, you can use a knife" - that seems a million times worse

[marisadallavalle]

Not only is the fountain totally wonderful, so is your voice! I could listen all day.

[monicaarrudaarruda]

Great projects! Love them! Thank you for sharing!

[tomdoritos]

Title : non stop fountain
Guy "when it stops, reset it"
Me "hol up, wait a minute...something ain't right"

[czaralfeojerusalem]

I feel so sad when i hear the "to restart the fountain"

[PotNatura]

Amazing system! So cool. I wanted to add a system like this in a jar terrarium, with a capacity around 10L. So, my question is, can i reproduce the same system in "tiny" dimensions? I mean, to use much smaller bottles for example. I don't know about physics at all, so I don't know if it matter the size of this "structure" for the water to complete the circuit. If someone can help me I would appreciate it so much. Thank you!!

[foxzerox]

Could you rig this so the bottles are next to each other? Because if so you could make a really compact camping sink