Ball in Funnel

PIRA 2C20.35

This experiment uses an air supply for an air-track, a funnel modified with a cork to attach to the hose, and a ping-pong ball.

The ping-pong ball is put into the funnel. Because the neck of the funnel has a smaller cross-sectional area than the mouth of it, the air in neck of the funnel will have a higher velocity. The Bernoulli effect will cause the slower, higher pressure air in the mouth of the funnel to push the ping-pong ball to the narrow end of the funnel. The fast moving air in the neck of the funnel creates a region of sufficiently low pressure to hold the ping-pong ball in the funnel even when it is inverted.