Integrated Science Lab Report

on
Hourglass

by

Chirateep Chatchonbut 5861023

Non Onpattanasin 5861081
Salisa Simaroj 5861136
Saran Chotipradist 5861137
Thamonphan Nontapatamadul 5861165

Integrated Science
Mahidol University International Demonstration School
Tuesday 30th , November 2017
present to
Nattapat Poolyam
Table of Content
Introduction 2

Materials 3

Method 4

Obstacles and Problem 5

Result 6

Discussion 7

Conclusion 8

1
 Introduction

An hourglass, or known as sandglass, sand timer, or sand clock, is an apparatus

for measuring the passage of time. It consists of two clear glass bulb with thin

bottlenecks connected together in the vertical direction. In one of the bulb popularly use

particles as sand. For make it working, we have to invert it upside down to make the

sand falls through a small hole connection between the two bulbs. Time is counting as

the sand is going through until all of it completely go to another bulb.

The designs of hourglass turn out in many ways and the uses of various

materials. For my group, we planned to choose two plastic bottle as a body of the

hourglass because it is easy to find, easy to use, and easy to fix. As the experiment is to

make the particles to run out from one side to another side within 23 hours, so we

decided to use the liquid material which is water as the filling. The connection between

the mouth of the two closed bottles is sealed with tapes for preventing water from

coming out and also make a small hole between the entrance of the bottle for water to

pouring from one side to another. And then our hourglass is done.

Material

2
 Duct Tape

Neddle

Two 0.6 Liter Water Bottles

Water

3
 Methods

1. Prepare two bottles of water with the lids

2. Create a hole on the lids with a needle

3. Put the bottles together to form the chambers

4. Secure the lids with duct tape

5. Add approximately 350 mL of water to create the filing

6. Flip the hourglass

7. Wait for 23 hours

8. Record the results

4
 Obstacles and Problem

The biggest obstacle on working hourglass is when water cannot pass through in

time which is actually it did not pour at all after reversing the pair of bottle 5-10 minutes.

Another problem is when the water leaks due to the looseness of the tape on the

connection between two bottles.

5
 Result

After the hourglass was flipped for 23 hours, not all particle of water dropped

from the top bulb of the hourglass. Half of water was in both top and bottom bulb.

Additionally, there was little of water leaked around the neck of the hourglass.

6
 Discussion

According to the experiment, there are three main factors that must be

considered which are type and amount of filling, the shape of the chamber, and size of

the pinhole. First, the filing, water is used to be the particle in the chamber. The amount

of water used is approximately 350 mL. The advantage of the use of water as the filling

is cohesion. Cohesion is the property of the water molecules that will cling to each other

because of the hydrogen bond. This would reduce interruption of the flow which will

make the hourglass stop at more accurate time. However, the bases have to to be

strong enough to support the weight of the water in the chamber. The next factor is the

shape of the chamber, especially the slope at the neck of the hourglass. The steeper

the slope, the faster the particle would run which causes the hourglass to complete

faster. The other factor is the size of the pinhole which controls the amount of particles

that passed to the lower chamber. Initially the size is calculated to be less than 0.1 cm

in diameter big but the size is expanded because the water did not flow through the

pinhole. However, this is caused by pressure of the air inside the chamber which was

locked inside when the bottles are sealed to prevent the leaking. To solve this problem,

the air in the chamber should be removed so there would be the space that water can

occupy. In order to remove the air, the syringe can be used and also simply by punching

a hole on the chamber to let the air move out of the chamber.

7
 Conclusion

In conclusion, our hourglass seem not work because the hole that we did to

make a water flow is too small and also the properties of water that clink the surface of

the lid so that the water cannot flow properly. Therefore, this hourglass cannot be used.

Next time, we will decide hourglass that really work and test it before use as a model.