Quote:
Originally Posted by haethae
I'm having a hard time understanding the air piston. Rather than the weight of the water, it seems to rely on the the volume. I'm not sure, but is the full weight/power of all the water actually being transfered? I keep thinking it will stall when the height of the water in the tank matches the height of the water in the smaller tube. Is there an in depth explanation anywhere on how the air piston is supposed to work?
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Please check out Hero's fountain, you can find an explanation on it on wikipedia, youtube and many other sites.
The answer to your question is partly yes, since it is only the hydrostatic force we are using now, but we are using the surface difference of the two cylinders to give the ratio of leverage by which we can multiply the distance with.
But you can say that a solid piston is better, because it will absorb the full weight of the water and turn it into pressure. In fact, if I didn't knew about Hero's pump I would probably never believed that this could work.
And i don't think the water flow will stop once every of them is seemingly at the same height, there is still a transformation of force and distance here which gives the source an extra helping hand.
But I must try this soon....