Giovanni Battista Venturi

Giovanni Battista Venturi was an Italian engineer and scientist who lived in the 18th century. He studied the flow of liquid through pipes and devices and came up with some of the most important findings in the field of fluid dynamics. He developed the "Venturi effect", which shows that when a narrow passage connects two spaces filled with fluid, the fluid moves faster through the narrow part. This is why you often see wide pipes leading to a very small one in plumbing systems - it creates a kind of "shortcut" for the water to take. Today, Venturi's discoveries are used in things like air conditioning and heating systems, power plants, and even rocket engines!