10/28/13 Academic OneFile - Document

Title: Q: when is the Bernoulli Effect not the Bernoulli Effect?

Author(s): Bill Robertson
Source: Science and Children. 50.3 (Nov. 2012): p79.
Document Type: Article
Copyright : COPYRIGHT 2012 National Science Teachers Association
http://www.nsta.org/
Full Text:

A: You can probably guess from the strange nature of this month's question that it wasn't sent in by a Mr. Richard
Fader from Fort Lee, New Jersey. (To understand this obscure reference, dig out video of Gilda Radner as Rosanne
Rosannadanna in the early seasons of Saturday Night Live.) By that I mean this isn't the kind of question your average
person asks. Instead, I made up the question so I could clear up a misconception that is rampant in science education.
You see, most of the examples provided in textbooks and other resources of the Bernoulli Effect are not, in fact,
examples of the Bernoulli Effect. What I'm going to do in this column is have you do a couple of activities, discuss
why the Bernoulli Effect is not the correct explanation of the activities, and then provide the correct explanations of
what's going on. And if you've never heard of the Bernoulli Effect, don't worry. You'll know what it is by the time you
reach the end of the column. First, the activities. Take a regular sheet of paper and hold it out in front of you using both
hands. Blow over the top of it, as shown in Figure 1. The paper should rise up as you blow over the top.

Next get a hair dryer, a round balloon, a string, and some tape. Blow up the balloon and tie one end of the string to the
end of the balloon. Tape the other end of the string to a tabletop. Now proceed as shown in Figure 2 (p. 80). As you
blow the hair dryer over the top of the balloon (use cool or cold setting), the balloon should rise up.

The incorrect explanation of what's going on in these two activities is that faster moving air results in a lower pressure.
The faster moving air over the top of the sheet of paper creates a low pressure area, and the higher air pressure
underneath the paper pushes the paper up. Similarly, the faster moving air (caused by the hair dryer) over the top of the
balloon creates a low pressure area there, and the higher air pressure under the balloon pushes the balloon upward. You
will see this phenomenon referred to as the Bernoulli Effect. Again, though, these are not the correct explanations.

This doesn't mean that there is no such thing as the Bernoulli Effect. It's real. However, the Bernoulli Effect applies to
a continuous stream of air or water. For example, if you send a bunch of air down a tube, and that tube gets narrower,
the air stream is forced into the narrow part of the tube. As it enters the narrow part of the tube, the air speeds up (if it
didn't speed up, the air would "bunch up" instead of flow smoothly). The faster moving air in the narrow part of the
tube is at a lower pressure than the air that's moving slower in the wider part of the tube. See Figure 3.

The faster-moving air in the narrow part of the tube is at a lower pressure than the slower-moving air in the wide part
of the tube; this is an example of the Bernoulli Effect. You can show why the pressure is different with the principle of
conservation of energy and some semi-complicated equations. I'm not going to do that here because I don't want you to
stop reading, b u t y o u c a n investigate these equations in any physics textbook or on the internet if you're so inclined.

So, why doesn't this Bernoulli Effect apply to the sheet of paper and to the balloon? It is because you're not dealing
with a continuous flow of air. The air on top of the sheet of paper is completely separated from the air underneath the
paper--they're not part of the same, continuous stream of air. So, the fact that the air on top of the paper is moving fast
does nothing to alter the pressure that air exerts relative to pressure exerted by the air underneath the paper. And the fact
that the air on top of the balloon is moving fast does nothing to alter the pressure that air exerts relative to the pressure
exerted by the air underneath the balloon.

All right, then, what's causing the paper and balloon to move upward? Before I explain that, I need to tell you about
Newton's third law, which states that if one object or substance pushes on another object, the second object or
substance pushes back on the first object or substance with an equal force in the opposite direction. If you throw a ball,
the ball pushes back on your hand as you throw. If you push on a wall, the wall pushes back on your hand at the same
time.

Back to the paper. As the air from your mouth blows over the top of the paper, it tends to follow the curvature of the
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paper. At some point, though, it loses contact with the paper and is, in a sense, "thrown off" the paper. As this air is
thrown off, it pushes back on the paper (third law) and causes the paper to move upward. See Figure 4.

There's a name for this process--it's called the Coanda Effect, named after Henri Coanda (convenient name for the
effect, no?). And of course, the Coanda Effect is also in play with the hair dryer and balloon. As the air follows the
curvature of the balloon and then leaves the surface of the balloon, it pushes back on the balloon, causing it to go
upward. See Figure 5.

Many phenomena usually explained by the Bernoulli Effect are actually examples of the Coanda Effect. Some are
caused by other things, and a few are actually examples of the Bernoulli Effect.

I should make it clear that I only recently (in the past year or two) became aware of all the incorrect applications of the
Bernoulli Effect. My college physics professors and my college text applied it incorrectly, I applied it incorrectly in my
own college teaching, and I applied it incorrectly in one of my books (since corrected). What this teaches us is that
sometimes even principles that we consider basic and clear are, upon further reflection, not as simple as we thought.
That's the nature of being an educator--you're always learning, and sometimes unlearning.

Bill Robertson (wrobert9@ix.net com.com) is the author of the NSTA Press book series, Stop Faking It! Finally
Understanding Science So You Can Teach It.

Robertson, Bill

Source Citation (MLA 7th Edition)

Robertson, Bill. "Q: when is the Bernoulli Effect not the Bernoulli Effect?" Science and Children Nov. 2012: 79+.
Academic OneFile. Web. 28 Oct. 2013.

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