Pythagorean Cups (Greedy Cup)
What is a Pythagoras Cup?
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Explaination!
The Pythagorean cup or (Pythagoras cup, Greedy cup, Cup of Justice) is a drinking cup invented by the Famous Greek Pythagoras.
The cup has a mechanism that controls the measures of a drink. It looks like a normal drinking mug, except that the bowl has a central column which is positioned directly over the stem of the cup and over a hole at the bottom of the stem.
A small open pipe runs from this hole almost to the top of the central column, where there is an open chamber. The chamber is connected by a second pipe to the bottom of the central column, where a hole in the column exposes the pipe to (the contents of) the bowl of the cup.
How does it work?
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Explaination!
As the liquid level increases in the cup, air pressure pushes the liquid into the inner tube. After a certain level, the liquid exceeds the rim of the innermost tube and starts to flow out. A vacuum forms and the liquid coming out creates suction, spilling the entire cup.
Pythagoras invented this cup for the workers, working in Samos Island and drinking wine, to teach them not to be greedy.
So if one worker try to fill the cup with wine, and the wine surpasses the line, the cup totally empties, so the greedy one is punished and lose all of his wine.