I wanted to explore which Heron Fountain model (stacked vs side-by-side)would create a more successful spout.  My hypothesis is: 

If I were to put the two bottles on top of each other instead of beside each other then the pressure would be higher because the straw going from the top to the bottom is longer than the straw when they are side by side creating more force to power the fountain which would result in a stronger spout from the Heron's fountain.

Heron, also known as Hero, was born in 10 AD in Alexandria Egypt. He was a Greek mathematician and engineer who was good at math, geometry, and physics. In his time, Heron designed a vending machine, a windwheel, a force pump, a syringe, and a fountain (which is known today as Heron’s Fountain). 

Heron's fountain is a mechanism that works like this:

Firstly, water goes into the top bottle, going down the straw into the second bottle. Next, the bottle is flipped upside down so the water is now in the top bottle. Then it displaces the air and this pressure  pushes the water up through the fountain straw making it spout.

Controlled variables:

• Type of liquid

Dependent variables:

• The height the water spout reaches
• How long the water flow lasts

Independent variables: 

• Height difference between bottles
• Size and shape of the bottles
• Straw length and thickness

Steps:

1. Glue the two bottle lids together
2. Drill two holes in the now connected double lids then drill two more holes in a third lid (that is not connected to the other two)
3. Make a hole in the bottom of the bottle big enough to be covered by a lid
4. Connect two bottles using the double lid (the top one is the one with the hole)
5. Connect three red straws together to make the red straw longer (note: if the straws have a flexy part, cut it off)
6.  Put the red straw inside one of the holes in the bottle
7. Get two yellow straws and cut off the flexy bit. Connect the two straws together
8. Put the yellow straw inside the other hole in the double lid (make it sit 1 inch below the actual top of the bottle) and glue it in
9. Measure a second bottle against the straws
10. Cut the yellow straw so it is 1 inch below the actual bottom
11. Re-attach the bottle to the double lid
12. Make sure the red straw sits a little bit out of the hole at the top
13. Get two blue straws, cut off the flexy bit, then connect the straws
14. Put the straw through the remaining bottle lid
15. And put the lid on top of the hole with the blue straw inside the bottle
16. Glue the lid on
17. Make sure the blue straw is raised 1 inch off the bottom of the top bottle
18. Glue straws down make sure to hold the blue straw one inch off the bottom of the top bottle when you glue it down so it sits there
19. Get a third bottle and cut off the top of it
20. Screw the top piece of the bottle on the bottle lid we attached to the top earlier
21. Optional: fill the spout straw with salt and plug it with napkins. Use a blow dryer to heat the straw and slowly curve the straw. Allow to cool.

Issues: 

1. Sometimes the bottles starts leaking water from the lid, where the straws connect, or from small holes of broken plastic 
2. The bottles can also start leaking air, which causes the pressure to decrease—this is bad because the pressure is needed to push the water and cause it to spout from the fountain
3. When assembling the fountain, measurements may be miscalculated which can cause things not to fit properly (such as the straws in the holes) or pieces can break (such as the lid when you drill holes into it)

Materials:

• Straws
• Plastic Glue
• Bottles
• Lids
• Saw
• Drill
• Saldur
• Glue gun
• Hot glue sticks
• Salt
• Blow dryer 

I assumed the project would be easy. I would cut a few straws, glue them to the bottles and it would be fine. But it turned out to be much harder; the main problem was the leaking— the holes were leaking air and water, which caused the pressure inside the fountain to decrease, which caused there to be a smaller spout. 

Heron's fountain is a mechanism that works like this:

Firstly, water goes into the top bottle, going down the green straw into the bottom bottle. Next, the bottles are is flipped upside down so the water is now in the middle bottle by going through the pink straw.Then you flip it back it right side up. Then you add more water to the top and it displaces the air and the pressure pushes the water up through the fountains main straw (light green) making it spout. A Heron’s fountain can run for up to two minutes straight!

The side-by side model did not work because while it spouted like a normal one, it was weak. The spout was weak because the pressure was bad because of the short straws. The short straws made it so that the force was not strong enough to push the water through, which is necessary to making it spout.

The stacked model worked because the straws where longer creating more force to power the fountain. You create the force by putting water in the top cup and then flipping over the founatin to get the water in the second botttle. After you do that you put a bit more water in, just enough to make it start.

In conclusion I learned that the stacked model worked better than the side-by-side one because the red straw that goes from the top to the bottom is longer making more force to power the fountain. This means that the side-by-side model is the not good because there is less pressure than the stacked one.

The herons fountain design is used for making the first steam engine train and for making toys that spurt water.

I think in the future the herons fountain could be used for forges. A forge is a place where you heat up metals to bend and shape metals.The herons fountain design could make it so lava could spew out the top so then the metalcould be shaped without having to pour the lava on yourself.

To stop the air and water from leaking, I needed to come up with solutions that worked for my bottle and straw types. 

One solution I came up with was to patch the holes using different types of glue (such as those specifically made for plastics), and another was to  adjust the measurements of the holes themselves. 

I went through a few different prototypes before coming up with the final model:

1. Model number one did not work because it leaked. It was leaking from multiple places like the straws and the lids from holes that where not patched correctly.
2. Model number two did not work because it was leaking from small holes that were not patched correctly and the model did not have enough force to make the water spout correctly because of the fact that the bottles where side by side and not on top of each other so the  force was low
3. Number three worked because it was not leaking air or water and it was the stacked model so the force was high 

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K49QOM_B8dA&t=175s
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heron
• https://explorable.com/herons-fountain

I would like to thank:

• My dad for helping with designing and building the project
• My mom for helping me make the video
• My brother and sister for helping me with the cysf platform upload.
• My teacher Ms.Bly she helped by anwering my questions and telling me ways to upload the project
• Dave Hax the guy who made the tutorial for the stacked model design