The Mesmerizing Science of Garden Sprinklers

The Mesmerizing Science of Garden Sprinklers

4 years ago
Anonymous $xdcOWPpsb_

https://www.wired.com/story/the-mesmerizing-science-of-garden-sprinklers/

It's amazing how much physics fun you can have with basic everyday stuff. Next time you’re watering the yard, stop and look at that simple spinning sprinkler. Watch the jets of water as they shoot out—why do they form those pretty arcing streams? A lot of times, a physicist’s job comes down to figuring out why the world is so beautiful.

Even more fun, once you know how something works, you can run little thought experiments by changing things up. That’s what Destin Sandlin and Steve Mould did on YouTube. Both of these guys have their own (excellent) science channels. But somehow they got to arguing about what would happen if you made a sprinkler that shot water inward, toward the center hub, instead of outward. If you took a snapshot from above, what shape would the water streams assume?