Gluggle Jug Is Neat Application Of Hydrodynamics

The Gluggle Jug is an aptly-named thing – it’s a jug that makes loud, satisfying glugging noises when poured. But how does it work? [Steve Mould] set out to investigate. 

[Steve]’s first plan was to cut apart an existing Gluggle Jug to see how it worked, but cutting ceramics can be difficult and time-consuming, and the asymmetric design only made things harder. Instead, he simply smashed a jug to see what it looked like inside, and replicated the basic design in a transparent laser-cut version.

The design is simple – the glug sounds are from bubbles passing into a closed cavity within the jug as the water is poured out. Stop pouring, and air from that cavity then escapes back through the open mouth of the jug via more bubbles, making an even louder glugging sound. The frequency of the sound is determined by the height of the jug, which is essentially acting as a closed-pipe resonator.

With an understanding of the mechanisms at play, producing your own Gluggle jug is as simple as whipping up a design in your CAD software of choice and printing it in a food-safe way. Video after the break.

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