An approach to Poiseuille's law in an undergraduate laboratory experiment

The continuous growth of computer and sensor technology allows many researchers to develop simple modifications and/or refinements to standard educational experiments, making them more attractive and comprehensible to students and thus increasing their educational impact. In the framework of this approach, the present study proposes an alternative experimental setup, which allows the confirmation of Hagen - Poiseuille's law, governing the flow of real fluids through tubes, a law with numerous important applications in both technology and medicine. In the proposed educational procedure, experimental measurements of fluid outflow are performed with the use of amotion sensor and a suitable computer program, allowing the determination of both the hydrostatic pressure and the flow rate. The dependence of the flow rate on parameters such as viscosity of the fluid, length and radius of the tube and the pressure difference between the ends of the tube are also studied, providing a laboratory activity which is useful and attractive for first year students, especially those of technologically oriented departments.