Mini Drinking Bird

Price: £9.99

Measuring only 13cm from the top of his hat to his big red feet, the Mini Drinking Bird is a tiny drinking marvel.

Dip his beak in water, and he'll be drinking all day. The Mini Drinking Bird comes with his own plastic cup and some basic instructions

Although smaller than the Classic Drinking Bird we all know and love, the Mini Drinking Bird is still a dedicated drinker and will actually drink faster than the classic.

The Mini Drinking Bird has a glass body with plastic legs, hat and cup.

How does the Mini Drinking Bird work?

• You wet the drinking bird's head
• Water evaporates from the drinking bird's head
• This cools the drinking bird's head
• Which causes the vapour in the drinking birds' head to condense
• This results in a lower pressure in the drinking bird's head
• Which sucks liquid up from the base of the drinking bird
  
• As liquid flows into the head, the drinking bird becomes top-heavy and tips forward
• When it tips over, the bottom end of the neck tube rises above the liquid in the bottom
• This causes vapour to rise up the tube to the head
• Which pushes liquid back down from the head to the bottom
• The increased weight of liquid in the bottom restores the drinking bird to an upright position

What physics does the Mini Drinking Bird demonstrate?

This one experiment manages to demonstrate a whole range of physical laws, including the combined gas law, the ideal gas law, the Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution, the heat of vaporisation, torque, centre of mass, capillary action, and probably a few others.

Is it perpetual motion?

Well, kind of - it will go on indefinitely, but it does rely on an energy input, in the form of heat from the surrounding environment, and you'll need to top the water up.

The combination of glass and volatile liquid means that the Mini Drinking Bird is not a toy. Kids should wonder at it from a distance.

This item is NOT A TOY. This is a science demonstration item for adults only.