
Empty bottles quickly with a whirlpool trick (2012) [video] - mpweiher
https://www.themodernnomad.com/independent/whirlpool/
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yesenadam
There is a much faster way, using cavitation.. from Bill Beaty of the awesome
[http://amasci.com/](http://amasci.com/)

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77gWkl0ZUC8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77gWkl0ZUC8)

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mcphage
"Ooh, cool fancy ice cubes! They look like shards of broken glass!"

"That's 'cause they _are_ shards of broken glass."

"...on second thought, I'm not really _that_ thirsty."

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shabble
I remembered seeing something along these lines a while ago, didn't realise it
was as far back as 2012 though:
[https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/sv6kw/which_is_...](https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/sv6kw/which_is_the_fastest_way_to_empty_a_5_gallon_jug/)

I guess it's something that many people rediscover on a semi-regular basis.

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alexfoo
I remember seeing the trick on Tomorrow's World (a UK science TV programme)
back in the 90s. Can't find a link to the particular episode though.

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lowlevel
I was doing this in the mid eighties... think a teacher showed me it but can't
remember... didn't have tv.

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schoen
I'm pretty sure I saw it featured in an article in _Highlights for Children_
during the 80s.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highlights_for_Children](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highlights_for_Children)

~~~
AluminiumPoint
I learned it in australia many years ago from these guys:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYBw7k_8EbE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYBw7k_8EbE)

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schoen
Do Australians commonly say "elephant" to count seconds as the presenters do?
In the U.S. it's usually "one-thousand" or "Mississippi". (I guess I can
imagine that Australians wouldn't say "Mississippi"!)

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yesenadam
I've never heard of "elephant", no. (Sydney here)

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PhantomGremlin
Is it really faster when you account for the time needed to first create the
whirlpool?

Conveniently, the emptying "race" in the video only starts after the whirlpool
has been created!

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eboyjr
Time it yourself by spinning the bottle right after you begin pouring, and you
will notice that it is still faster. ;)

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joezydeco
So is there a way to do this trick without your hand touching the liquid?

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howderek
Yes

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLeYYMT-3BM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLeYYMT-3BM)

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latchkey
I feel like this is more than just air flow. You're adding energy into the
bottle by causing the water to spin in a whirlpool. It seems like that energy
would also help push the water out of the bottle through path of least
resistance dynamics (the open end of the bottle).

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regularfry
The counter-argument there is that after you've swirled it, each water
particle has to travel a longer path to get out of the neck, because it's
corkscrewing rather than going in a straight line.

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latchkey
Except for the fact that those particles are moving faster (velocity)...

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regularfry
Yeah, they're going faster on a longer path. It's not immediately obvious
which factor would win.

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jvandonsel
"By creating a whirlpool inside the bottle, you’ve set up a corridor of air
connecting the inside of the bottle with the outside air."

It didn't appear to me that the small vortex in the video actually reached all
the way down to the mouth of the bottle.

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blahedo
It didn't when she still had her hand on it, but as soon as the water began to
drain, the funnel/vortex immediately connected the mouth with the air pocket
at the top.

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dangoljames
I discovered this bottling gallons of homebrew beer and cider.

