Question

why don't we use water instead of mercury in Torricelli experiment? if we are ready to do this experiment, what length of tube is needed?

Answer 1

1.Water is transparent
2. Water will stick to the tube because of adhesive force between water molecules
I meter length is required

Answer 2

The density of water is 1.and the density of mercury is 13.6. So,density of mercury is more than water. So mercury is used in Torricelli experiment. If we are ready to do experiment with water we need to take 13.6 glass tube more than mercury glass tube. That is 13.6×100=1360.0 meters tube we have to take for water experiment.

We take 100 because the tube which we used in mercury experiment is 100meters.

This is the scientific reason behind that.