Joey Green's Mad Scientist

Spraying Fountain

What You Need

Electric drill with 1/4-inch bit
Two clean, empty glass jars and one plastic lid
Two straws
Caulk
Water
Yellow food coloring
Blue food coloring
Baking pan

What to Do
With adult supervision, drill two holes in the lid. Insert the first straw through a hole so that 2 inches of straw extend above the lid. Insert the second straw through the other hole in the lid so that 2 inches extend inside the lid. Caulk the holes around the straw and the lid.
Fill one jar half full with water, add five drops of yellow food coloring, stir well, and screw on the lid. Fill the second jar with water, add five drops of blue food coloring, and stir well.
Place the jar of blue water in the baking pan. Turn the jar with the lid and straws upside down, and place the shorter straw in the jar, letting the longer straw empty yellow water into the pan.

What Happens
As the yellow water empties into the baking pan, the blue water rises and sprays like a fountain in the sealed jar.

Why It Works
Gravity empties the yellow water from the sealed jar through the straw, reducing the air pressure inside the jar. The air pressure outside the sealed jar, now greater than the air pressure inside the jar, pushes down on the blue water in the second jar, forcing it to spray out of the other straw.

Bizarre Facts

While pumps supply the pressure in artificially created fountains, the enormous weight of water in a reservoir generates the pressure for natural fountains.
The fountain at Fountain Hills, Arizona, is the tallest fountain in the world, creating a column of water up to 625 feet tall and weighing more than eight tons.
According to ancient Greek legend, drinking the water from the fountain of Castalia on the sacred mountain Parnassus bestows the ability to write poetry.
The 1954 Academy Award-winning movie Three Coins in a Fountain, following the stories of three women who each toss a coin into the Trevi Fountain in Rome, was remade in Madrid as the 1964 movie The Pleasure Seekers.
Fountain of Youth
Spanish explorer Ponce de Leon searched Florida for the mythical Fountain of Youth, a spring whose waters would reputedly make old people young and heal the sick. He did find a spring in St. Augustine that he thought would give him eternal youth, and today you can visit the Fountain of Youth at 155 Magnolia Street and admire a statue of Ponce de Leon that does not age.
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