Wirtz pumps are really clever

This is super amazing!

steve do you like apples and bananas

I like how Matt Parker is just hiding in the background like a cryptid

Adding a set of valves that open and then close at 340 degrees will do the trick.

You made your prototype too narrow, the surface tension is and issue there.

I love wild sightings of Matt Parker.

This is actually an ancient water pump. From ancient civilization times even.

This pump was used to water the hanging gardens of Babylon. They hauled out palm trees that pumped the water to different levels of the garden.🎉

I subscribed at the pause after pointing out your never having had made a mistake in a video before, 😅

I would guess the surface tension issue is due to the square cube law getting into action at too small diameters, since the surface that is under tension grows in contrast to the shrinking diameter if that makes any sense. It's just my theory, but it would make sense

The problem with living in the modern times is that someone in the past already thought of things I thought of

I really want to know how that rotating coupler works

This is the wirtz video EVAH!

These water puzzles are amazing

could you use some kind of contaminant sieve attached to one of these to, through purely natural power, pump flowing water through the cleaner? would there be enough pressure to get through the filtering? If so it could go a long way toward providing drinkable water to places that can't make their local sources safe without boiling or filtering, which often takes a lot of manpower and time and usually gets consumed too fast for production

I wonder how much blue dye this man has gone through over the years.

I want to live in that garden.

truly an amazing piece of hardware

It's not the difference in height between individual parts, it's the difference in height between the top of those parts.
Doesn't matter where the bottom is the pressure should stay basically the same.

can you do a ram pump next

So what happens if one pump pumps up to another reservoir and pump and then into a tank at height to go into a penstock to drive a generator?

this video made me think of a simulation where we can optimize the Wirtz pump to infinity - actually the physics is not that complicated and is absolutely possible to find quite an optimal design for the pump. Is this ever done so far? Is it worth the effort of a few weeks of simulations?

Double-Denim Klaxon!!

It'd be interesting to take the transparent maze and run smoke through it by using air pressure to find the correct path, although it might be difficult to make it air tight? I'd imagine the air wouldn't travel down any of the incorrect paths because there wouldn't be a significant weight difference like there is with water.

Cool physics.

this type of machine can function as a liquid pump or a gaseous compressor. it's the early origin of the scroll compressor used in modern air conditioning systems.

I like a lot how you do videos together with Matt Parker too. I am interested on how you all reunite! Best science collaboration

What would happen if you induced a vacum in the system, before starting rotating the spiral (with the opening under water while the vacum is released).

Now put a huge motor on it

I just love that he managed to get a completely nature-driven bog garden from a water pump

could watch these videos for hours steve 🌀

It’s a screw pump

All i have to say about this video is.......DOUBLE DENIM!

Could the spiral be next to each other to get even more simlar lengths on each "circle"?

Adhesion to the walls.

Please make one about this. Its interesting to see how high it can go

What would happen if you varied the diameter, making it larger or smaller as you neared the center?

Maybe try adding a check valve at the end to see if that increases the height?

Didn't catch it if it was mentioned, but would a smaller diameter vertical tube taking the fluid up help as it's water tension would make the air lock more durable?

I wonder if it would pump with more pressure if you just put a larger pipe on your inlet.. Just maybe 1ft of 2" pipe, so that it scoops more water on every go around. You would get slightly less air, but I wonder if it would still work.

That's a lot of pinot noir!