Objective: To discuss an application of
Boyle’s law Equipment: A drinking glass, a plane cover for the glass
Introduction:
To show that air exerts pressure, science textbooks at lower
classes describe an activity where a drinking glass is filled to
the brim with water, is covered by a cardboard and then
inverted. The demo consists of seeing that the cardboard does
not fall. The explanation is that air exerts force on the
cardboard from below and this force is more than that exerted on
the cardboard by the water. So the card is pushed up and does
not fall. The present demo is a slight modification in this
famous activity wherein the water is not filled up to the brim
and then it becomes a demo for Boyle’s law. Procedure:
Take a drinking glass and fill it up to about half with water.
Put a plane cover on the glass. You can use a cardboard, or a
plastic cover or any other plane cover. Hold the cover by
pressing from top with one hand and invert the glass. Gently
remove the hand from the cover. The cover does not fall and
holds the water in the glass.
The upper portion of the glass contains air and hence presses
the water down. The force on the cover due to water is A(P1+
h?g); where A is the area in the upper portion of the glass, h
is the height of the water column and ? is the density of water.
From the bottom the force is P0A; where P0 is the atmospheric
pressure. The fact that the card does not fall tells that P1 <
P0. How did P1 become smaller than P0? When you covered the
glass, the air trapped was at the atmospheric pressure P0. It is
the same air that is now in the upper portion (provided you have
not allowed air to leak out or leak in during inverting the
glass) the volume of air should be the equal to (volume of
glass)- (volume of water). If both remain the same, the volume
of water should remain the same. The temperature is anyway the
same. So from PV=nRT, the pressure should remain the same, that
is P0
But it does not remain P0. It becomes less than P0. In fact the
cover goes slightly down when the glass is inverted. If it is a
cardboard cover, it may buldge at the centre. If it is plastic
cover, it goes slightly down and there is a water slice between
the glass and the cover. This you can verify by slightly tapping
the cover horizontally. You will find that the cover moves quite
smoothly. This shows that it is not rubbing the glass surface.
Here surface tension also has to play a role.
As the cover goes slightly down, the volume of air in the upper
portion increases. This decreases in pressure according to the
Boyle’s law and the water column stays in equilibrium. Discussion:
Sometimes few drops of water may go out while inverting. If air
has not gotten into the glass in this period, the volume of air
will increase and hence the pressure will decrease. Sometimes
few bubbles of air also gets in. This happens when somewhat
larger mass of water comes out during inversion. In such a case
right amount of air will go in which can maintain the cardboard
in equilibrium. . Instrument cost and availability : Zero Acknowledgement: Self designed
