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Once upon a time, lived in Persia a caliph with his beautiful daughter. During a night storm, a camel-driver convoy (caravan) asked for shelter and found hospitality in the caliph’s palace. During the night a handsome and strong young man, who was the chief camel-driver, saw caliph’s daughter, fell in love with her and he kidnapped her.
The next morning, the infuriated caliph chases the thieves of his daughter, and finally succeeds in arresting them. The whole group is imprisoned. In order to make a fool of them, he places inside the prison a reservoir full of water.
At the time every man carried in a flask the water essential for travelling in the desert, and this was made out of animal-skin. The caliph then orders for a hole to be punched in the skin of every water-bag available and he also removes their top seals. “If you manage to empty the water from the reservoir using only your skin bags, then you will earn your freedom again”, he promises them. Much to his surprise, after a while the camel-drivers had succeeded to empty the water reservoir. The caliph kept his promise, released them and said: “You deserve your freedom, and you, chief camel-driver, can marry my daughter, because of your brains, as it is certain that you will become famous one day”. ( http://users.thess.sch.gr/thpourgi/didaskalia_fysikis.htm)
Work: apart from discovering the obvious moral that “physics is the science fit for camel-drivers”, explain the technique that they used for taking the water out of the reservoir using the flasks (water-bags) with wholes punched on them.
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