Science Education Home Home Teachers Students Games Videos VA SOL Programs

Here's a Question!

Water from a Spiraled Hose

A garden hose is wrapped around a bucket, counter-clockwise, five times. The end of the hose is placed at the bottom of the bucket and aligned so that it's more or less parallel to the ground. The water is suddenly turned on. What will the water do when it exits the hose?

Announcer: Frostbite Theater presents... Cold Cuts! No baloney!

Joanna and Steve: Just science!

Joanna: Hi! I'm Joanna!

Steve: And I'm Steve!

Joanna: Here's a question for you...

A garden hose is wrapped around a bucket, counter-clockwise, five times.

Steve: The end of the hose is placed at the bottom of the bucket and aligned so that it's more or less parallel to the ground.

Joanna: The water is suddenly turned on.

Steve: What will the water do when it exits the hose?

Joanna: Will it fall in a curved path towards the ground?

Steve: Will it continue on an upward path before falling towards the ground?

Joanna: Will it make five counter-clockwise loops before falling towards the ground?

Steve: Or, will it make five clockwise loops before falling towards the ground?

Joanna: Pause the video now if you'd like to think it over before we show you what happens.

Joanna: When the water exits the hose, it's basically subjected to two forces: air resistance, which we'll happily ignore, and gravity, which is really hard to ignore.

Steve: The water has no memory of the path it took through the hose. Right? What came before doesn't matter. As soon as the water exits the hose, it just falls under the influence of gravity.

Joanna: Thanks for watching. I hope you'll join us again soon for another question!

Citation and linking information

For questions about this page, please contact Steve Gagnon.