SCENARIO ONE
EXPERIMENT TO INVESTIGATE THE SUDDEN FLOW OF WATER IN THE TAPS AT HOME
This study is going to investigate the sudden floor of water in my house. Water running from the tap is usually enabled by many factors such as shortage in the reservoir tanks, absence of power to pump it up and down the reservoirs among other factors.
In my house, there is a massive water reservoir located at the top of the building. Water is pumped from the public water lines to the dam at the reservoir tank by use of electricity. Once the water is pumped, and the tanks are full, it flows by some force whether gravity or not and is accessible in the house through the taps. The house is a three storey building with several taps located across the house. Taps in the third floor tend to run dry more quickly that those in the ground floor. My suspicion is that up to a certain level, where gravity cannot push it to all the rooms in the building, it needs to be refilled or pumped using electric power.
In this case, I am going to investigate the sudden stop of the running water in the taps across the taps in the house. The stop normally starts from the taps located at the third floor followed by second, first and finally the ground floor.
HYPOTHESIS
The flow of water in the room is dependent on the location of the tap. The experiment seeks to determine the relationship between the location of the tap in the house and the flow of water.
EXPERIMENT
A simple experiment will determine the validity of the hypothesis. The experiment will test the factors that determine the floor of water in the room and reach a conclusion on the dependent and independent variables.
PROCEDURE
Set up the experiment as follows.
- Fill the reservoir tank with water until it is full. This is done through pumping water from the public water lines to the tank using water pumps powered by electric currents.
- Open a single tap located in the bathroom area of each of the three floors of the house, first, second and third floors at the same time.
- Allow the water to flow to external sites out of the house (such as the garden) by connecting it to outlet pipes to avoid overflowing the room with water.
- Record the time it takes for the pipes to run dry in seconds.
- Record the location of the tap from the ground floor in meters
- Observe the speed of water as it squirts out of the pipe and comment.
- Record the results in the table as shown
RESULTS AND ANALYSIS
In the experiment, the result implied that taps located at higher levels above the ground run out of water first as compared to those located adjacent to the ground floor. It took approximately 3454 seconds for the third floor taps to dry. Compared to the ground floor tap, it took 6807 seconds to dry.
Synthesis of the result indicated the following
The force making water flow down the pipe exists at the entrance of the pipe. The experiment has investigated the origin of this force and what controls it. S
The rate of floor of water is dependent on the elevation of the tap above the building. A longer distance H affects the rate of flow of water out of the tap. Suppose the water is stationary, the taps connected to the pipe area are off. The water column directly above the pipe entrance has weight acting only downwards. Thus, downward force acting on the column of water directly above the tap area is equivalent to the weight of water in the given column. Thus, the downward force only acts along the column area and stays the same no matter how much water is contained in the reservoir tank.
Thus, it can be sufficiently argued that the force acting and making the water flow out of the pipe id purely dependent on the vertical distance between the water surface in the header reservoir tank and the point where the water leaves the pipe (that is at the tap point).
The force acts on the water in the pipe with constant diameter all through the house. This force is known as pressure, and it is a function of force exerted and the surface (cross-sectional) area of the pipe.
Since the density of water is assumed to be the same in all the taps (it is from the same source) and gravitational density g is constant, the only dependent variable is given by “h”. Thus, the higher the height of the tap above the ground floor, the greater the pressure and the shorter the time it takes to dispense the water out of the tap. Since the water level is reducing as the water flows from all the pipes, taps located at the third floor are the first to run dry since the force and pressure are dependent on the vertical distance h.
After 3654 seconds, the taps at the third floor runs dry because the distance between the tap head and the reservoir head is small as compared to taps at the second, first and ground flow.
Thus, the rate of floor is slow at 1m and high at 7m. The time of flow is inverse the rate of flow due to the distance h above the ground floor.The hypothesis has been tested and determined to be valid. It is thus accepted that the flow of water in the taps is dependent on the elevation of the taps above the ground floor.
SCENARIO TWO
A PROBLEM WITH A TV SET AT HOME
The TV set cannot be turned on in the morning, yet it worked the previous day correct. In order to investigate the problem using scientific methods, we set a hypothesis and validate or disapprove it.
HYPOTHESIS
The TV set is spoiled and needs to be taken to a technician for repair.
EXPERIMENT
In order to test the functionality of the TV set, we subject it to different tests.
PROCUDURE
- Determine if the power is available in the house.
- Determine if other appliances are working correctly if plugged in the same power outlet. Remove the power cable of the TV and plug in the radio power cable. Switch on the radio and determine if it is working.
- Plug in the TV power cable and switch on the television using the recommended procedure.
- Check to ensure that the power cables is inserted properly
- Determine whether the TV set works properly after inserting the power cables and switching it on.
The TV does not come to live when all the above steps have been done. Power is on in the building and when radio system is connected it works properly. When I plugged in the TV power cable properly, the power signal on the set is not lit indicating a faulty component.
The hypothesis has been tested by performing all the required procedures. It has proved beyond doubt that, after it has satisfied all the conditions, the television set needs specialized scrutiny beyond the home environment. It has failed to work even after confirming that power is available. Also, the recommended procedures for switching it on have been executed without success.
It, therefore, confirms the hypothesis that the television set is spoiled and as such needs to be taken to an electronics technician. One possibility is that one component of the TV set is spoiled. It can, however, not be ascertained what it is at the moment and needs specialized diagnosis and repair.
Reference
Jones, G. F. (2011). Gravity-Driven Water Flow in Networks: Theory and Design. John Wiley & Sons.
Peter Achinstein, L. J. (1994). Scientific methods: conceptual and historical problems. Krieger Pub. Co.
Prabhata K. Swamee, A. K. (2008). Design of Water Supply Pipe Networks. John Willey and Sons.
Prunckun, H. (2010). Handbook of Scientific Methods of Inquiry for Intelligence Analysis. Scarecrow Press.
W. D. McCaffrey, B. C. (2009). Particulate Gravity Currents: (Special Publication 31 of the IAS). John Wiley & Sons.
Wiseman, R. (2011). Quirkology. Pan Macmillan.
Zaghloul, J. S. (2006). Multiphase Analysis of Three-phase (gas-condensate-water) Flow in Pipes. ProQuest.
