Re: Summary...Bournoulli for 5th Graders (LONG)

[George Spagna <gspagna@rmc.edu>]

At 11:02 PM 9/24/96 EDT, David Dockstater wrote:
> Can our feeble cold shower be from Bernoulli?  Bernoulli is often incorrectly
> stated as something like faster fluids create less pressure than slower
> fluids and any time there is a velocity difference Bernoulli is touted out.
> Bernoulli is basically a conservation law and is derived under very stringent
> conditions where energy and mass are conserved.  However, conditions in a
> shower are so far removed from the conditions for which Bernoulli's Law is
> derived that I find it difficult to see how it can have anything to do with
> this phenomonon.

Actually, there _is_ a way to get "Bernoulli" to provide the clinging shower
curtain in a cold shower:  If the gap between one's body and the curtain is
narrow the water stream may entrain an airstream, which would be at lower
pressure than the stationary air on the "outside".  

George Spagna           **********************************************
Department of Physics   *   "The purpose of science is to get paid   *
Randolph-Macon College  *     for doing fun stuff if you're not a    *
P.O. Box 5005           *       good enough programmer to write      *
Ashland, VA 23005-5505  *         computer games for a living."      *
                        *       -  E. Robert Schulman                *
phone:  (804) 752-7344  *          Ann. Improb. Research,            *
FAX:    (804) 752-4724  *             Vol 2, No. 5, p. 8             *
e-mail: gspagna@rmc.edu **********************************************
URL:  www.rmc.edu/~gspagna/gspagna.html