Pressure is the amount of force that is exerted on something.

Gravity causes pressure naturally.

Water pressure is the force created by the weight of water.

When you jump into a pool, you can feel the force pushing around you.

Water pressure can push water through pipes and hoses.

Here is an easy water pressure experiment.

Simply poke a few holes at different heights on a bottle and watch water pressure at work.

You will find that water pressure changes depending how the height of the holes.

Water Pressure Experiment

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Active Time: 40 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour 10 minutes

Here is another interesting experiment: water pressure.

Let's see what water pressure can do.

Materials

tall, empty plastic bottle
water

Tools

scissors or a sharp object to punch holes.
adult supervision

Instructions

Using scissors (or a sharp object), make a few holes on the plastic bottle 2 inches apart vertically.*Caution: be very careful whenever handling sharp objects*.
Fill the bottle with water and watch it drain through those holes.

Notes

You have just created a water fountain! This water fountain demonstrates the power of water pressure.

You should see that the stream coming out from the topmost hole land nearest to the bottle. The further down the hole, the farther its steam lands.

This phenomenon is created by different water pressure at each hole.

In this experiment, water pressure is the force applied from the water above on the water below. Because this force comes from the weight of the water, the water at the bottom receives the most water pressure.

High water pressure pushes the water out through the hole the strongest and therefore the stream shoots the farthest.