Water Ways

Water is all around us. We sail boats on it, bathe in it, fill squirt guns and grow sea monkeys in it. When frozen, we ice skate on it and cool drinks with it. When boiling, we make spaghetti and cocoa, and use its steam to iron clothes. We happily dive into a pool of water and run for cover when it comes pouring out of the sky. Check out these amazing facts about water:

Check out these amazing facts about water:
• Pure water is virtually colorless and has no taste or smell.
• If it weren’t for Earth’s gravity a drop of water would be a perfectly round ball.
• Water is called the "universal solvent" because it dissolves more substances than any other liquid.
• Water is the only natural substance that is found in all three states: liquid, solid (ice),gas (steam)
  
  * Ice floats because water is in the solid form, ice, is less dense than the liquid form.
  
  *All of these forms can be observed at the temperatures found on Earth. Earth’s water is constantly changing between these states.

The River

Locks help boats navigate rivers as the depth of the water changes, especially where dams have been built.

There are 23 locks and dams on the Allegheny, Monongahela and Ohio Rivers.

In Waterplay visitors have the opportunity to see what a lock and dam looks like and place a boat into the lock chamber of our lock and dam prototype. The gate is opened to let the boat continue on its way.

As a river or stream flows over and around rocks and through narrow spaces, the water pressure increases, resulting in jets, sprays and rippling rapids, and a bumpy ride for a boat! You can see this using a water faucet: when you cover most of the faucet to reduce the space the water flows through, water pressure increases and the water may spray out in many directions.

Boat Building

A boat floats because the pressure of the water pushes up on it, counteracting the force of gravity that pulls it under water. Even large ships made of steel can float because their shapes provide a large area for the water pressure to act against. When an object floats, it displaces a volume of water whose mass is equal to the object's own mass. If it can't displace this much water, the object sinks.

A sail catches wind to move the boat forward. If your boat faces a head-on wind, try "tacking" - follow a zigzag course, keeping the sail at an angle to the wind.

Anyone Call a Plumber?

Water pressure is the force of water as it moves. Forcing water through a confining hole with pressure produces sprays and jets, as in the nozzle on a hose. To help water flow through a tiny hole and create even more pressure, pumps are used. There are pumps in water fountains, squirt guns, dishwashers etc. Jets and sprays have many uses, from delivering liquids in a useful form to providing power by action and reaction. A pump may deliver the fluid to the nozzle, as in a dishwasher or a fountain, or it may be contained under pressure as in a spray can. (Referenced from "The New Way Things Work" by David Macauley, pg. 136)

Gravity also plays a role in the flow of water. When you pour water out of a container, the earth’s gravity pulls the water towards the ground. The same thing happens when you put two buckets of water, with a tube between them at different heights. You must do work to start the flow of water from one bucket to the other, but then gravity takes over and the process will continue on it’s own. (Referenced from Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, http://www.omsi.edu/visit/physics/ww/.)