The amazing drinking bird 🐦

The Original Drinking Bird

Drinking Bird Engine Experiment: what happens if you feed a drinking bird alcohol? This experiment compares the drinking rate (time per one full engine cycle) of two identical bird devices- but the glass on the left is filled with 70% isopropyl alcohol whereas the glass on the right contains tap water. After wetting the tops of both birds we count how many times each one “takes a drink” over a 5 minute duration (shown at x6 speed). This classic physics toy is a functional heat engine where cooli