How to get some liquid out of a bottomless bottle without turning it?
A simple do-this-at-home experiment

This Instructable is based on an accidental observation.
It might take a scientist to find things like this funny, but maybe you do as well.
And given, you are working in theoretical or experimental physics: can you give a sound explanation of this phenomenon?

When I was playing mindless with a nearly empty, reclosed PET (!) orange juice bottle, it fell screw cap-down on the table. I then saw the residual liquid in the cap jumping up when the cap of the bottle hit the table.

Not really surprising as such, but it does in a single, narrow, staight column, reproducibly. I have been using my mobile to document the process (see images).

As an experiment with a Pepsi bottle showed, it is working even better if a bottle with a smaller screw cap is used. Here the liquid column can hit the top (former bottom) of a larger bottle. Or, if you remove the bottom of the bottle,it will spash upwards, reaching estonishing heights.

What could you do with it:
You may use this phenomenon to trick somebody (preferentally parents or teachers) or you may place a bet that you can remove/get some of the liquid from the bottle without turning it or touching the liquid.
Some may make a drinking game out of it.

- Take a empty PET bottle. Remove the bottom with a knife or a pair of scissors.
- Fill a few milliliters of some (colored) liquid into it (amount to be optimized for the individual bottle).
- Hold the bottle at least 1 meter above a hard ground. Carpet floor will not work.
- Release bottle.

Depending on the liquid, you may either try to fetch it, or you better remove your head.

Have fun playing.

TRIM_20160505_125332.mp4
Download

Step 1: Open Bottles: Example 1

Trying to be able to see what is happening in the cap of the bottle and how high the liquid can splash, I removed the bottom of the bottles. Interestingly, using a 1.5 ltr Pepsi bottle, parts of the liquid were splashing higher then the starting height of the fall. You can have a look on the realtime movie, but you will see more details on the individual images.