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Water Roller Coaster #2

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In the previous page, we learned about the Downhill Law of Thermodynamics. For a little humor, some wags have called it Murphy's Law of Thermodynamics as it predicts that things will go from bad to worse! Now we turn our attention to the You-Don't-Get-Something-For-Nothing Law of Thermodynamics - the Law of Activation Energy.

You have already noticed that the water just doesn't miraculously start flowing as soon as you put the tube over the rim of the bucket. You need to "activate" the water: you need to lift some of the water up over the rim by suction or by plugging the end of the water-filled tube and actually lifting one end of the tube over the rim.

Let's step aside here for a moment to look at the universal implications of activation energy. Within this Law are important lessons for everybody in how to lead a good and productive life - you MUST work in order to reap benefits. We have lots of common words for "activation energy" - motivation and encouragement are two very good ones. "Activation" is not just something used in science and physics. It is universal. Both our bodies and minds are parts of the universe and thus are subject to this Universal Law of Thermodynamics.

As the newspaper cartoon pictured, there are several ways to use a siphon to remove water from the bucket. Some will be easier than others. But what do we really mean by "easier?"

In our usual case, the water container is on a table on an outside porch where splashed water doesn't matter. Then the siphon tube was merely draped over the rim of the container and then started by - say - suction on the lower end. It didn't take very much to get that going. Look what happens if the tube came out of the water and up over a hook in the porch ceiling before coming back down to the floor. A great deal more suction needs to be exerted on that bottom end to get the water up the tube and over the point where it passes over the hook. Again, this is "self-evident" to the child once she or he starts sucking on the tube and watching the water climb in the translucent tube.

REMEMBER: the important thing is how hard it is to start the siphon,
NOT how fast it goes!

Not so self-evident is the FUN PART. Next make a water roller coaster in which the tube goes up over the ceiling hook, and down to the floor, and then up over a back of a chair, down the floor again, and then perhaps over your shoulder before finally back to the floor. Do all these other smaller hills (chair back and your shoulder), make it harder to start the siphon than when it just went over the hook alone?

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