Monday, August 29, 2011

Question 764: Greed, for lack of a better word, is...stupid.

__X__ is a thingamajig.
This thingamajig is generally credited to, and named after ___Y___ who is believed to have come up with it in order to curb the greed of a certain set of workers and preventing it from, well, overflowing.

This funky invention consists of a column in the centre positioned directly over the stem and over the hole at the bottom of the stem. A small, open pipe runs from this hole almost to the top of the central column, where there is an open chamber. The chamber is connected by a second pipe to the bottom of the central column, where a hole in the column exposes the pipe to the contents of __X__.

It uses some fancy Pascal's Principle of Communicating Vessels and other less fancy siphon concepts to work and thus successfully defeats the greed of the evil greedy people who are so full of greed and thirst and stupidity and what not.

What? Explain how X works.


ANSWER:

X - Pythagorean Cup



When the cup is filled, liquid rises through the second pipe up to the chamber at the top of the central column, following Pascal's principle of communicating vessels. As long as the level of the liquid does not rise beyond the level of the chamber, the cup functions as normal. If the level rises further however, the liquid spills through the chamber into the first pipe and out the bottom. Hydrostatic pressure then creates a siphon through the 
central column causing the entire contents of the cup to be emptied through the hole at the bottom of the stem.

5 comments:

VK said...

X = Pythagorean Cup or Tantalus Cup. When a greedy drinker fills the cup beyond a particular level, the liquid level crosses into the other vent in the stem and falls on the drinker's lap.

Priyank Mehta said...

The Pythagorean Cup.
It was named after Pythagoras.
It allows the drinker to fill his drink up to a creation level. If he fills up the glass more than that, the drink spills on to his lap.

R said...

Pythagorean Cup named after Pythagoras

gopmadan said...

pyhtagorean cup

Pi.R.Square said...

pythgorean cup & pythagoras