Pour water into the upper container while blocking the hole with your finger. To make holes for the eyelet screws, hammer the nail in a quarter of its length at the first mark. Introduce the concept of measurement to your child by collecting natural objects from the park or beach. (third) a "float stick" made from a cork and a wood dowel that enables a person to track time visually. You will put together the float stick, attach the float stick to the wood stake, and then tape the wood stake to the bottom container. You do not need to secure the upper container to the lower container, but you should avoid bumping it as it runs, since doing so could make the results less accurate. Place the wood stake next to the bottom container. ›Rock Hunters ›, toolsExploring Caves ›Animated guide: Hurricanes ›, lessonsReady, Set, Let's Dough! Use a permanent marker to mark, on the lower half of the bottle, how much water falls within one minute. 3 Ingredient Homemade Pixie Sticks with Real Fruit! We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. Do you think that you could use a water clock in your daily life, perhaps to time tasks like doing homework? Cumaru will eat up any metal except stainless so I threaded in some 1" x 1/2" stainless plumbing bushings for the pivot shaft. Remove the nail and screw the eyelets into both holes. Since the wood stake is ¾ inches wide, the center is at 3/8 inches. Fit the cup snugly into the top of the plastic bottle. Two eyelet screws will guide the float stick assembly as it rises, keeping it straight and not tilting. Since it is probably the easiest problem to test and solve, you may want to try restarting the experiment using more water in the upper container first. It is for decoration only, and not actual work, but it looks great. Using a hot glue gun, glue the tops of the two lids together. If you do, what does that mean for size and weight? The larger the containers are, the more water they can hold and the more time they can track. Some of my construction techniques are quite similar to yours. When 30 seconds have gone by, mark the water level on the tape. American Association for the Advancement of Science. I used Gary's plan to make my own water wheel. In order to read the clock (which you do by looking at the position of the float stick), does it matter if the bottom container is clear or solid? Please help us continue to provide you with our trusted how-to guides and videos for free by whitelisting wikiHow on your ad blocker. The top container can be clear or solid. Do not start it yet. The source of water could range from a large (2-L) reservoir of water to the tap, again depending on the restrictions you wish to place on the design. To build a feedback-controlled system (a water clock) and research ways to improve the system design. The Children's Museum of Indianapolis Inc.. (2011, February 7). This includes deciding what containers to use and what size hole(s) to make in the upper container. Stick a length of masking tape on the outside of the bottle, from the top to the bottom in a straight line. These eyelet screws will secure the float stick in a vertical position, thereby reducing the amount of bobbing the stick will do and making it easier to accurately read the water clock once it is assembled. The two outer hubs are two pieces of cedar laminated together at cross grain to each other. After an hour, you will notice that the float stick has moved up. This time, mark the water level at one-minute intervals. Redoing the experiment enables you to ensure that your results are repeatable. This will make the clock more precise and easier to read. If the hole lets water out either too fast or too slow, simply block the opening on the inside with a marble-sized amount of plumber's putty. Please log in (or create a free account) to let us know how things went. Table 1. Can you add an alarm to your water clock design? The filter system and pump will be housed inside the building for ease of access. Do you think the flow rate will stay the same or change over time? Since the water clock depends solely on the flow of water, it can operate at night or on days when the sun does not shine. Pierce the bottom of the cup with an embroidery needle or sewing needle to create a small hole. Provide students some time in class and outside of class to develop the concepts for their robots, check their ideas to be sure they meet the design criteria and are safe, and then provide at least one or two periods of in-class time for part of the construction, so you can judge how the group members are working together and to provide encouragement and reinforcement of their ideas. The Experimental Procedure below provides a general design to build the water clock, I wanted to thank Gary for sharing his design, rather than charging a bunch of money like everyone else does. Your email address will not be published. Figure 3 shows a water test on the upper container. You can then make a new hole with a nail in a different location. The time is measured according to the drops of water. Water clocks are one of the oldest time measuring systems. Use caution when using tools like hacksaws and hammers. What do the results tell you? Each project should be accompanied by a written report which details their design, including drawings illustrate and name all of the parts of the robot system they have designed. The wider the range of options allowed, the more everyone will learn about what’s possible with robots. The desired start flow rate should be about 50 to 100 drops per minute. Yes, in my opinion. How A Water Clock Works In the first part of the activity, the class will investigate how a water clock works and the effect of one of its variables on its ability to be an accurate timepiece. You can build your own version at home, but the complexity of the design will vary depending on how much time you want to track. This line should be a vertical one. « 3 Ingredient Homemade Pixie Sticks with Real Fruit! Continue to let the water drip out, marking every interval of 30 to 60 minutes on the stake, until all the water has dripped into the bottom container from the top. Use the thinnest nail possible. My wheel is 12" wide, and I laminated pieces to form the "buckets." This distance is the 1-hour measure. For example, a drop is one second. You’ll find a link to “I Did This Project” on every project on the Science Buddies website so don’t forget to share your story! Figure 4. All rights reserved. If your upper container does not have any openings, then skip this step, and go on to step 3. Insert the wood dowel into the opening you just made, making sure that the dowel is straight, not tilted, and firmly attached. I joined them with a waterproof polypropylene glue, and I … The wheel will be used to run a piston style pump on a crank and a spiral pump mounted to the side of the wheel. Now assemble the float and stick together and attach it to the wood stake. {"smallUrl":"https:\/\/www.wikihow.com\/images\/thumb\/6\/61\/Make-a-Water-Clock-%28Clepsydra%29-Step-1.jpg\/v4-460px-Make-a-Water-Clock-%28Clepsydra%29-Step-1.jpg","bigUrl":"\/images\/thumb\/6\/61\/Make-a-Water-Clock-%28Clepsydra%29-Step-1.jpg\/aid3587474-v4-728px-Make-a-Water-Clock-%28Clepsydra%29-Step-1.jpg","smallWidth":460,"smallHeight":345,"bigWidth":"728","bigHeight":"546","licensing":"