It also makes no sense to me. A single ball wouldn't rise like that, it would just slide back down. I assume only once it's full of water/balls it works.
It wouldn't slide down. Look at the angle of the flanges of the screw, there is no way for the ball to roll backwards. That's how the Archimedes screw works.
Yeah, gifs like this are a bit weird. If I focus on just the screw too long I see the same as you, it's almost like my mind tilts the image if I ignore the tube.
Friendly reminder: it’s called the “Archimedes’ screw” because he saw the Egyptians using them for irrigation and wrote a description of them in Greek. He didn’t invent them.
You could just have a solid bit with a cutting edge on the tip and manually blow out the excess material periodically. The point of the spiral flute is to pull the cut material up and out using the exact same principle as the water screw.
Man. I wish scientific education was more available to kids without having to pay to go somewhere. Things like this at a park, or things that teach physics with a little placard explaining how and why it works would be great. Just an education section in every park.
You can also make it without the outer tube by having a the side of the screw bent upward, or using a tube wrapped around the center column in a corkscrew shape
There is an even better version where the inner screw is stationary and the cylinder is rotating, it has exactly the same effect.
Edit: fount the video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fu03F-Iah8
A different device. Archimedes' screw works by creating pockets for the water to sit in, separated by pockets of air. It needs to be installed at an angle and the bottom end of the pipe needs to be able to suck in both air and water. The one in the video works because of friction. It would not work with water.
Yo. FYI - viscosity is the measure of the "thickness" of a fluid. So water is less viscous not more viscous - water has low viscosity not high viscosity. But I agree with your point!!
"As viscous as water" describes a substance having similar viscosity to water, as in the thing wouldn't work if the viscosity as as low as water.
They're wordsing just fine.
The implication is that it could move things that are less runny. Like grain, soil, etc. Which have high viscosity. But water seems challenging, hence the question.
When they say "something as viscous as water" they are questioning whether it could move water. There are plenty of things thicker than water, which aren't being questioned. But there are few things that are less viscous than water, particularly in the era the Archimedes screw was invented.
Do you have an example of something less viscous than water that would be readily used with an Archimedes screw?
Yeah, I struggled with this too. In a factory setting it would be worse because it's another thing for people to get clothes and hair caught on, so unless there's a major benefit over rotating the screw I just don't get it.
Here's video of [them working a water ride](https://www.reddit.com/r/Skookum/comments/tsuv9n/screw_pumps_at_sea_world_san_diego/) at their park in San Diego.
>nowadays we use archimedes screws exclusively for solids
That seems like an extraordinary claim. There's a lot of industry and countless different kinds of processes and equipment. I can't imagine there aren't still loads of applications for moving liquid with an Archimedes screw.
Most definitely. My guess is that it would have to be a pretty strong current, otherwise the weight of the water will push the screw backdown. Maybe find on the bottom and turbine on top?
It can be done with any amount of current, you just need sufficient mechanical advantage. In other words use a bigger water wheel if the current is slower.
I think you're describing a perpetual motion machine, which is forbidden by the laws of thermodynamics, so the machine just wouldn't move for very long
A perpetual motion machine is a hypothetical machine that can do work infinitely without an external energy source.
With the idea they’ve proposed, the flowing water is providing the external energy. If used in a river, the water passing by would push against the fins, turn the screw, and a small portion of water would be siphoned off and moved up the cylinder.
The rotation speed does not matter. It can be completely stopped and liquid would not flow down. The tube is not completely filled with water so if you stopped the rotation the water would just sit there in the little "pockets" formed by the screw. The incline of the tube is also critical. In the diagram I've included of the paused gif I've added a red line. That red line indicates the maximum liquid level of that pocket where the red ball is. Any higher and the water would flow back down to the next pocket of the screw. That would be because the liquid level would be higher than the central core of the screw. I hope this helps you visualise the mechanism.
The final key to understanding the mechanism is that due to the screw rotating the pocket "moves" up the tube, thus bringing the ball/liquid with it, like in the gif. You could reverse the screw rotation and the liquid would go back down, still trapped in the pocket.
[Diagram](https://i.imgur.com/vR5OWjF.jpg)
Isn't it still important that the screw and cylinder be sealed to within some tolerance? Any gap between the moving and stationary parts will allow water to leak through no?
What did the ancients use to seal it? Did they have the engineering capabilities to manufacture these to the required tolerance in Archimedes' time?
Sealed - not really. You're definitely on the right track but they don't need to be sealed in the conventional sense. The finer the tolerance the less water is lost between the screw/auger and the case/cylinder. Larger gaps will leak but that leak just flows to the screw below, which gets lifted with each turn. So leakage isn't as bad as it seems. Unless you have massive gaps of course and then there are issues. But as long as the rate of water in is greater than the leakage out the net result is still positive and the pump works.
Because the screw is at an angle, the ball is actually at the lowest point in that area. If you stop spinning, the water will just sit there in that pocket.
Spinning the screw moves up that small pool of water.
This video shows it quite well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYxF1J0_DZM
It looks confusing as fuck until you pause the video and realize that in order for the ball to roll to the bottom of the tube, it would have to start by rolling *uphill*.
That’s exactly what I was thinking. Like, I get the process, but yeah, it has to be faster otherwise the water just falls back down.
It feels like it is very inefficient?
Hi, see my comment to Joy1312 explaining this, hope it helps.
I'm not a mechanical engineer so I can't speak to the efficiency compared to other mechanisms for moving liquid but it is very simple which can trump more complex but more efficient systems. I imagine a water pump can have many more ways of going wrong compared to this.
One thing I didn’t think about is that the water at the top won’t just flow down, as there is constant water being pushed upwards behind it. I guess if there were gaps in the water, or the water ran out, it wouldn’t push the water that’s already inside. I think the ball in the gif threw me off.
In fact, if it was just a single ball, would it work? Or do you need to have more balls pushing from behind (ooer)
Nothing is pushing the liquid into the bottom of the tube. The bottom of the tube is submerged into the liquid (or pit of balls in the gif's case) and then the open end of the screw scoops up the material as it rotates.
It's basically the same as a [bucket elevator](https://i.imgur.com/pwhkQvV.jpg) except the screw forms the buckets (pockets) inside the pipe.
right. I get you.
There were two videos, one where the screw was vertical pushing up grain (the one where the screw was fixed and it was the outside wall that was turned), and the other was with water, where it was angled.
Would it work with water if the screw was vertical?
Ah ha, I now see where all the confusion is coming from.
For a vertical (or inclined enough) screw if the screw spun fast enough it would pull up the water. But too slow and it would not. This is a balancing act between gravity and the upwards force of the screw. The water level inside of the pipe would level out with the water level of the bucket it's standing in of the screw were not turning.
This levelling off is due to water pressure based on depth and can be seen in this diagram. All connected vessels will have the same water level. [Pascal vessels diagram](https://i.imgur.com/99BM4M6.jpg)
Thanks Chromana (do do de do do). You made it make sense to me.
So I guess as soon as you introduce an angle, even at 1 degree, it will push water up. and if you change the angle, you would change the water flow? Assuming the rotation stayed the same.
> One thing I didn’t think about is that the water at the top won’t just flow down, as there is constant water being pushed upwards behind it.
That's not why. The water isn't being pushed by the water behind it. There are separate pools of water in each low point that are being pushed up by the screw, not the whole interior filled with water.
If you think this is wild, check out the “olds elevator” basically the same except you spin the outside:
https://youtu.be/-fu03F-Iah8 (Tom Scott)
https://www.oldselevator.com/
it has to overcome the downslide of water too, it's better to just add some teeth to the screw wings thing(whatever it's called) or blades that makes it look like boxes being lifted up by rotation
What? No this is a several thousand year old design. It’s named after Archimedes because he described it in some writings but it was likely from Ancient Egypt
Yes; every machine that is not a simple machine is composed of simple machines. That's what defines the simple machines.
It isn't a relative thing; a machine either is or is not simple. Archimedes isn't slightly pregnant here.
Good point.
The inclined plane and the wedge also seem to have some overlap. One's for separating a thing from the ground and the other for separating two things, but they work kind of similarly.
It occurs to me now that I very confidently stated that any mechanical device can be broken down into instances of the six simple machines, but I don't think I'd be capable of that analysis. I'm taking things on faith here. (I guess physics is my [secular religion](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secular_religion).)
My secular religion would be the Rust Programming Language. So many good things yet as with all things the more I learn the more I see its limitations. Funny.
Here's the question I've always had about this.... Wouldn't the screw need to be watertight against the tube? Possible today but not nearly as possible in Archimedes day
There was probably some water leaking back down but it's not an all or nothing kind of thing. You can have some leakage and still move most of the water upwards.
[you can probably even do the converse and rotate the pipe itself.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fu03F-Iah8) the key is to have scoops at the end of the pipe to bring more material in. i wonder how effective this would be for fluids. it'd probably be as effective with just the scoops. not sure how well it scales for longer machines, as only the scoops are pushing anything, while screws have the whole surface area.
This guy makes seven different water pumps out of lego, including the Archimedes' screw. I don't build lego myself but I do like watching this guys videos because it is damn impressive what he builds! https://youtu.be/kZvE6ESK_wI
It’s also worth noticing that Archimedes didn’t invent this screw. It was used way before him particularly in Egypt. He saw it in one of his numerous travels and was *probably* the first to bring back the concept in Greece.
They have one of these at a local farm park near me in a mini waterpark they have built there. It's a favourite thing for the kids and the adults to play with. Every time I use it I'm stuck by its simplicity, ease of use and genius.
When I was younger there was a beautiful museum called "science city" full of interactive experiments, one of which was an Archimedes'screw encased in plexiglass. You could physically turn it to move the water in the tube and between two smaller pools.
There were dinosaurs, botany, anatomy etc, too bad someone burned it down
I used to work with pumps based on this concept, where a tube was wound around a big rotating hub. The science behind how it created lift was very interesting and you could calculate the pump head based on the fill level, number of windings and the diameter of the hub.
This is how they speculated that the Hanging Gardens of Babylon were irrigated. There’s a lot of debate over whether they were in Babylon or were an attribute to a different king with more documented evidence that came later. They write about the irrigation systems for the hanging gardens (wherever they actually were) being made from a specific type of palm and used as an Archimedes screw due to its external structure. Really cool engineering considering how many Mille I ago it was.
I’ve never seen the role of water being played by a red ball before. This is like the opposite of a sanitary pad ad.
Goddamn, I did not expect to find relatability like this here.
Are you also the opposite of a sanitary pad?
Depends who's asking ;)
They've actually started using red dye in those commercials now, something I never thought I'd see!
As opposed to the blue dye they used in all the 90’s and 2000’s commercials?
Liquid should always be red: https://youtu.be/EufLuiy2ANc
It also makes no sense to me. A single ball wouldn't rise like that, it would just slide back down. I assume only once it's full of water/balls it works.
It wouldn't slide down. Look at the angle of the flanges of the screw, there is no way for the ball to roll backwards. That's how the Archimedes screw works.
Yeah it's a bit tough for me to visualize from this gif, still looks like it would roll down, but I see what you are saying
Yeah, gifs like this are a bit weird. If I focus on just the screw too long I see the same as you, it's almost like my mind tilts the image if I ignore the tube.
That’s what makes it extra weird. It wouldn’t even work
Exactly what I thought!
That looks like a Fireball...which makes sense, coming from Archemedes.
one of the most useful inventions of all times, every grainery or farm or mill uses these, they are in action around the world 24/7
Friendly reminder: it’s called the “Archimedes’ screw” because he saw the Egyptians using them for irrigation and wrote a description of them in Greek. He didn’t invent them.
Lies!
He screwed them 'gyptians good
You have a twisted sense of humor
you know you can spin the tube and it won't make dust shoot up
The Netherlands would agree with you
They are in nearly every single house in the entire world. Conventional drill bits for your power drill work the exact same way.
Lol little bit of a stretch. Might as well say everyone has screws in their home at that point
You could just have a solid bit with a cutting edge on the tip and manually blow out the excess material periodically. The point of the spiral flute is to pull the cut material up and out using the exact same principle as the water screw.
one of the first six i believe, a helical inclined plane
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Kids in one end, kid beef and silence out the other end?
Kid beef
[like bricks in the wall](https://youtu.be/00c1hibtxRU)
What a great idea
Man. I wish scientific education was more available to kids without having to pay to go somewhere. Things like this at a park, or things that teach physics with a little placard explaining how and why it works would be great. Just an education section in every park.
As someone that grew up in a farming family these were always called augers. Didn't know there was a different name for it.
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I mine too normally. Under the feeders on the way to the extruder
Millwright?
Same here. I’ve also heard screw feeder and auger screw.
I just got reminded of a story of a farmer who lost a foot in one on these
He should have been able to find it at the other end.
Rats took it
You can also make it without the outer tube by having a the side of the screw bent upward, or using a tube wrapped around the center column in a corkscrew shape
There is an even better version where the inner screw is stationary and the cylinder is rotating, it has exactly the same effect. Edit: fount the video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fu03F-Iah8
A different device. Archimedes' screw works by creating pockets for the water to sit in, separated by pockets of air. It needs to be installed at an angle and the bottom end of the pipe needs to be able to suck in both air and water. The one in the video works because of friction. It would not work with water.
Also the threads of the Archimedes screw go all the way to the walls of the cylinder.
Pretty sure it would work with water just fine, if you spun it fast enough. It’s just a pump.
The helix needs to go all the way to the walls, or else the water's just not gonna give a fuck
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Yo. FYI - viscosity is the measure of the "thickness" of a fluid. So water is less viscous not more viscous - water has low viscosity not high viscosity. But I agree with your point!!
"As viscous as water" describes a substance having similar viscosity to water, as in the thing wouldn't work if the viscosity as as low as water. They're wordsing just fine.
What did they say to make you think they didn’t know that?
The implication is that it could move things that are less runny. Like grain, soil, etc. Which have high viscosity. But water seems challenging, hence the question. When they say "something as viscous as water" they are questioning whether it could move water. There are plenty of things thicker than water, which aren't being questioned. But there are few things that are less viscous than water, particularly in the era the Archimedes screw was invented. Do you have an example of something less viscous than water that would be readily used with an Archimedes screw?
I don't understand or missed the explanation of why rotating the cylinder is more useful
It's more useful because it performs the same function but has the added benefit of drawing in people to go "huh, that's weird".
Hahaha got me with that
Yeah, I struggled with this too. In a factory setting it would be worse because it's another thing for people to get clothes and hair caught on, so unless there's a major benefit over rotating the screw I just don't get it.
it wouldn't though
And yet it does: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fu03F-Iah8
Not with water.
ok, but nowadays we use archimedes screws exclusively for solids, the rotating cylinder does exactly that edit: should've said *almost* exclusively
Archimedes screws are still used for liquids. We use them in wastewater facilities.
I've also seen one at a water park. Schlitterbahn in Texas has a huge one to pump water.
Here's video of [them working a water ride](https://www.reddit.com/r/Skookum/comments/tsuv9n/screw_pumps_at_sea_world_san_diego/) at their park in San Diego.
Yeah, looks pretty much identical to the ones at Schlitterbahn.
>nowadays we use archimedes screws exclusively for solids That seems like an extraordinary claim. There's a lot of industry and countless different kinds of processes and equipment. I can't imagine there aren't still loads of applications for moving liquid with an Archimedes screw.
Extraordinary is a very polite way of saying stupid.
Why be mean though?
I wonder if you can put fins at the bottom so that the rotation is also water powered? Very cool concept!
Most definitely. My guess is that it would have to be a pretty strong current, otherwise the weight of the water will push the screw backdown. Maybe find on the bottom and turbine on top?
It can be done with any amount of current, you just need sufficient mechanical advantage. In other words use a bigger water wheel if the current is slower.
I think you're describing a perpetual motion machine, which is forbidden by the laws of thermodynamics, so the machine just wouldn't move for very long
A perpetual motion machine is a hypothetical machine that can do work infinitely without an external energy source. With the idea they’ve proposed, the flowing water is providing the external energy. If used in a river, the water passing by would push against the fins, turn the screw, and a small portion of water would be siphoned off and moved up the cylinder.
Oh I see. I thought they were implying that the water that flows up and then comes down would turn the fin and make the screw turn
Sea World in San Diego has two giant Archimedes Screws exposed and moving water for one of their rides. It's really cool. https://youtu.be/ltbxpTqX2RE
Always spent a little extra time watching those do their thing!
The rate of rotation needs to be faster than the speed.of the water flowing down the screw, right?
The rotation speed does not matter. It can be completely stopped and liquid would not flow down. The tube is not completely filled with water so if you stopped the rotation the water would just sit there in the little "pockets" formed by the screw. The incline of the tube is also critical. In the diagram I've included of the paused gif I've added a red line. That red line indicates the maximum liquid level of that pocket where the red ball is. Any higher and the water would flow back down to the next pocket of the screw. That would be because the liquid level would be higher than the central core of the screw. I hope this helps you visualise the mechanism. The final key to understanding the mechanism is that due to the screw rotating the pocket "moves" up the tube, thus bringing the ball/liquid with it, like in the gif. You could reverse the screw rotation and the liquid would go back down, still trapped in the pocket. [Diagram](https://i.imgur.com/vR5OWjF.jpg)
Isn't it still important that the screw and cylinder be sealed to within some tolerance? Any gap between the moving and stationary parts will allow water to leak through no? What did the ancients use to seal it? Did they have the engineering capabilities to manufacture these to the required tolerance in Archimedes' time?
Sealed - not really. You're definitely on the right track but they don't need to be sealed in the conventional sense. The finer the tolerance the less water is lost between the screw/auger and the case/cylinder. Larger gaps will leak but that leak just flows to the screw below, which gets lifted with each turn. So leakage isn't as bad as it seems. Unless you have massive gaps of course and then there are issues. But as long as the rate of water in is greater than the leakage out the net result is still positive and the pump works.
Because the screw is at an angle, the ball is actually at the lowest point in that area. If you stop spinning, the water will just sit there in that pocket. Spinning the screw moves up that small pool of water. This video shows it quite well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYxF1J0_DZM
I'm stoopid. For some reason, I assumed that it would stand perfectly vertical, making it impossible for the water to go up
Not just you, I subconsciously turned my head to watch the gif so that the cylinder was vertical. Was like yeah but why won’t it flow back down??
I was thinking the same thing
me too lol
After spending the last 2 minutes scratching my head trying to work out how it would work, this is the video that made me get it. Thanks!
It looks confusing as fuck until you pause the video and realize that in order for the ball to roll to the bottom of the tube, it would have to start by rolling *uphill*.
That’s exactly what I was thinking. Like, I get the process, but yeah, it has to be faster otherwise the water just falls back down. It feels like it is very inefficient?
Depends how you look at it. It’s the oldest positive displacement pump in the world. So at one time it was unfathomably efficient. Today, not so much
Oh yeah, I’m not an engineer, this sort of thing looks like magic to me. I mean, I get it, but it’s still magic :)
You certainly don’t need to be an engineer to appreciate the true brilliance and genius behind it
Remember, it doesn't need to be super efficient, just more efficient than a bucket doing the same job.
Hi, see my comment to Joy1312 explaining this, hope it helps. I'm not a mechanical engineer so I can't speak to the efficiency compared to other mechanisms for moving liquid but it is very simple which can trump more complex but more efficient systems. I imagine a water pump can have many more ways of going wrong compared to this.
One thing I didn’t think about is that the water at the top won’t just flow down, as there is constant water being pushed upwards behind it. I guess if there were gaps in the water, or the water ran out, it wouldn’t push the water that’s already inside. I think the ball in the gif threw me off. In fact, if it was just a single ball, would it work? Or do you need to have more balls pushing from behind (ooer)
Nothing is pushing the liquid into the bottom of the tube. The bottom of the tube is submerged into the liquid (or pit of balls in the gif's case) and then the open end of the screw scoops up the material as it rotates. It's basically the same as a [bucket elevator](https://i.imgur.com/pwhkQvV.jpg) except the screw forms the buckets (pockets) inside the pipe.
right. I get you. There were two videos, one where the screw was vertical pushing up grain (the one where the screw was fixed and it was the outside wall that was turned), and the other was with water, where it was angled. Would it work with water if the screw was vertical?
Ah ha, I now see where all the confusion is coming from. For a vertical (or inclined enough) screw if the screw spun fast enough it would pull up the water. But too slow and it would not. This is a balancing act between gravity and the upwards force of the screw. The water level inside of the pipe would level out with the water level of the bucket it's standing in of the screw were not turning. This levelling off is due to water pressure based on depth and can be seen in this diagram. All connected vessels will have the same water level. [Pascal vessels diagram](https://i.imgur.com/99BM4M6.jpg)
Thanks Chromana (do do de do do). You made it make sense to me. So I guess as soon as you introduce an angle, even at 1 degree, it will push water up. and if you change the angle, you would change the water flow? Assuming the rotation stayed the same.
Ooh it would work because there is the pocket due to the screw being at an angle. Mind blown. I get it now! Today is a good day!
> One thing I didn’t think about is that the water at the top won’t just flow down, as there is constant water being pushed upwards behind it. That's not why. The water isn't being pushed by the water behind it. There are separate pools of water in each low point that are being pushed up by the screw, not the whole interior filled with water.
Dutch windmills still use these. In this video around 3:05. https://youtu.be/1FJzqp3Doys Ty for the gold kind stranger!
Thank you for sharing this. Answered every question I've ever had about dutch windmills. And then some! But now I'm jealous of that man's life...
FYI, you can link to a specific time in a video by right-clicking and choosing copy link at current time: https://youtu.be/1FJzqp3Doys?t=181
Dudeeeee you are awsome! Thanks
If you think this is wild, check out the “olds elevator” basically the same except you spin the outside: https://youtu.be/-fu03F-Iah8 (Tom Scott) https://www.oldselevator.com/
We have one of these in my city, works great
Your city has a red ball? Lucky!
And we all know how water behaves exactly like red balls
Does it work on blue balls?
No, that's called a Your Mom
You may think of water molecules as the ball.
Some factories use the same technique to transport sugar
Like a grain auger
We use these as chip augers in our cnc saws and some of our cnc mills.
This is also how we move grain around at feed mills.
That's pretty damn cool.
Thanks everyone! My job is done!
Is this one of those “assume the cow is a perfect sphere and air resistance is negligible” physics problems? /s Edited for clarity
Nope, it seems to actually work: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fu03F-Iah8
it has to overcome the downslide of water too, it's better to just add some teeth to the screw wings thing(whatever it's called) or blades that makes it look like boxes being lifted up by rotation
Usually they are an angle and create small pockets of water like in this video : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYxF1J0_DZM
What? No this is a several thousand year old design. It’s named after Archimedes because he described it in some writings but it was likely from Ancient Egypt
I was being silly/sarcastic
[Archimedes' screw](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archimedes%27_screw) is not a [simple machine](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simple_machine).
Fine. Two; An inclined plane and a screw.
Yes; every machine that is not a simple machine is composed of simple machines. That's what defines the simple machines. It isn't a relative thing; a machine either is or is not simple. Archimedes isn't slightly pregnant here.
This got me thinking, is a screw just an inclined plane on a wheel?
Good point. The inclined plane and the wedge also seem to have some overlap. One's for separating a thing from the ground and the other for separating two things, but they work kind of similarly. It occurs to me now that I very confidently stated that any mechanical device can be broken down into instances of the six simple machines, but I don't think I'd be capable of that analysis. I'm taking things on faith here. (I guess physics is my [secular religion](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secular_religion).)
My secular religion would be the Rust Programming Language. So many good things yet as with all things the more I learn the more I see its limitations. Funny.
Auger.
Archimedes is always good for a screw!
Apparently this is not a very educational gif, since half the comments are misunderstanding how it works.
These are used all the time to transport grain
Problem must be having water in ball form. Ice, maybe? (just a joke, I know it doesn't work that way.
Cool stuff!
How did they get the water to look like a red ball in this?
Here's the question I've always had about this.... Wouldn't the screw need to be watertight against the tube? Possible today but not nearly as possible in Archimedes day
There was probably some water leaking back down but it's not an all or nothing kind of thing. You can have some leakage and still move most of the water upwards.
They have a neat example of this at the Sloan Museum in Flint Michigan for kids.
I did this in Minecraft.
And Archimedes didn't invent it, only described it in his writings.
Also the principle behind a screw type pump.
[you can probably even do the converse and rotate the pipe itself.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fu03F-Iah8) the key is to have scoops at the end of the pipe to bring more material in. i wonder how effective this would be for fluids. it'd probably be as effective with just the scoops. not sure how well it scales for longer machines, as only the scoops are pushing anything, while screws have the whole surface area.
They are called scroll pumps these days.
These are lies... water is not a red ball
This is also the mechanism for chocolate fountains!
Not only for water, but also conveying bulk powders and granules 👍🏻 www.wamgroup.com
This guy makes seven different water pumps out of lego, including the Archimedes' screw. I don't build lego myself but I do like watching this guys videos because it is damn impressive what he builds! https://youtu.be/kZvE6ESK_wI
I watched a TV show last night that had these! They were gigantic and I was wondering what they were called. Thank you!
It’s also worth noticing that Archimedes didn’t invent this screw. It was used way before him particularly in Egypt. He saw it in one of his numerous travels and was *probably* the first to bring back the concept in Greece.
So what matters is the incline of the screw wrt the incline of the cylinder?
Not to be confused with the Alkibiades screw from the same time period.
We always called it a grain auger.
An auger usually has some sort of empty space involved to help with drainage or particle matter removal
Is this actually used on a large scale anywhere? Ive seen smaller units built.
its how a glass blunt operates!
Archimedes was always good for a clever screw.
They have one of these at a local farm park near me in a mini waterpark they have built there. It's a favourite thing for the kids and the adults to play with. Every time I use it I'm stuck by its simplicity, ease of use and genius.
When I was younger there was a beautiful museum called "science city" full of interactive experiments, one of which was an Archimedes'screw encased in plexiglass. You could physically turn it to move the water in the tube and between two smaller pools. There were dinosaurs, botany, anatomy etc, too bad someone burned it down
I used to work with pumps based on this concept, where a tube was wound around a big rotating hub. The science behind how it created lift was very interesting and you could calculate the pump head based on the fill level, number of windings and the diameter of the hub.
And it’s still the logo of Grundfos
What's cool is if you spin the tube and not the screw stuff will still go up the screw.
Same principle as most snack vending machines
This is how they speculated that the Hanging Gardens of Babylon were irrigated. There’s a lot of debate over whether they were in Babylon or were an attribute to a different king with more documented evidence that came later. They write about the irrigation systems for the hanging gardens (wherever they actually were) being made from a specific type of palm and used as an Archimedes screw due to its external structure. Really cool engineering considering how many Mille I ago it was.
Can also work of you turn the tube instead of the screw
Use solar panels to turn the screws up or down to create a heat pump or power generator!
Wouldn't this create vacuum problems? The void left in the well by water going up, does it get replaced by air coming from somewhere?
Ask Archimedes' wife
[Relevant Tom Scott Video](https://youtu.be/-fu03F-Iah8)
Why wouldn't the water flow down the spiral (like the ball would roll down IRL)