NCERT Solutions Curiosity Chapter 6 .1 Pressure — Activity 6.2: Let us find out
Book page 846 Updated on2026-09-05
Q1.
What do you observe?
Answer
Water flows out through all four holes at the same time, in streams that shoot sideways away from the bottle.
The four holes are made at the same height near the bottom, sealed with tape, and the bottle is filled with water. When all the tapes are removed together, water jets out of each hole. Because the holes are at the same height, the four streams are alike; and as the water level in the bottle falls, all four streams weaken together.
Water leaves every hole in the side wall, so the liquid must be pressing outwards on the wall.
Q2.
What can you infer from this observation?
Answer
That liquids exert pressure on the sides of a container as well as on its bottom — in fact, a liquid exerts pressure in all directions.
The holes are in the vertical wall of the bottle. Water can only be pushed out through them if it is pressing horizontally, outwards, against that wall. And since all four holes at the same height give similar streams, the sideways pressure is the same all round at a given depth.
Why it matters: this is why water spurts like a fountain from a leaking joint or a hole in a water pipe — the water inside the pipe is pressing on the pipe wall, and wherever the wall is broken, that pressure drives the water out.