Here is a link to a picture of a pool that had to be designed to fit the curvature of the earth in order to get it to flow on all sides evenly.

http://deathstar.rutgers.edu/people/dtulloch/pics/boston.html

I am going to see if I can find more information about it, but think about this for a minute. If the sides had to be altered to get it to flow, this means that the earth's curvature does alter the height of water over long distances; even in the same container (pool). That means that, theoretically at least, it may be possible to have perpetual water flow in the same container of water. Just as long as the container is long enough that the curvature of the earth comes into play.

If the tube where a mile long, the curvature of the earth would drop by 4 inches. ( based off 10 ft drop for every 30 miles length.)

So is " level " circular?

2 inches in 10 feet = 2/120 = 1.67%.  I think 2 inches in 10 feet is too hard to measure accurately.  Maybe the guy thought he was working with a level surface, but wasn't?

Hi all I`m the one who did the experiment... Dosnt seem like that big a deal anyway, at the rate of flow above intake, it woulld take alot of pipes to get a strong enough flow to turn a water wheel.

If it's true, it's a very big deal.

on my second try at this i had the hose rise to only 14 inches above water intake. I tried to curve the hose back into bucket, but could not the flow would stop. I guess it only flows smoothly in a straight line

Was that water intake, or water level?  There is a difference.

I hope he didn't make such a basic mistake.

crazy, here's a simple test to confirm it. Fill two buckets equally with water. Move them apart and make sure they remain at equal height. Now let the outlet drop in the other bucket. Since you say it can flow 2 inches above the supposed water level you should have no problem letting it flow. The very second the water flows you instantly win.

Hi Jim,

I don’t even want to go there because I don’t believe the water weight is the reason the water would flow. I think that in order to eliminate any errors in “leveling” the experiment needs to be done in the same body of water; not in two separate buckets.

I believe this would work, but it needs to take into account the curvature of the earth. That is why the length of the hose is important. As I posted previously, the earth drops off at approximately 10 feet for every 30 miles in length. So a pipe that is a mile long and started out at the surface of the water would have the water level drop off a total of 4 inches over the length of the pipe. This means that the siphon effect would allow the water to flow even though it was at a higher altitude( as referenced to the water level) further down the pipeline. Water seeks its own level, but it does that in reference to the surface of the earth.

That means that a pipe or hose that is a quarter of a mile in length would have the water level drop off a total of one inch. That one inch is enough to get water to flow