Sheet # 7/Earth Day - Dripping Faucet
Name: _____________________ Date_____________
Explain and Show Your Work
Check your faucets at home -- do any of them drip? Well, maybe it's just a small drip -- how much water can a little drip waste? True, a single drip won't waste much water. But think about each faucet in your home dripping a little bit all day long. What if every faucet in every home on your block ... in your town ... in your state also dripped? The drips would add up to a flood of water wasted down the drain.According to expert scientific investigation, a small drip has a volume of about 1/4 of a milliliter (0.25 ml).
1) How many drips are there in a liter of water?
2) One gallon is equal to 3.8 liters. How many drips are there in a gallon?
3) If one of your faucets drips at the rate of 1 drip/minute, how many liters of water would be wasted in a day?
4) In Problem 3, if 100,000 homes in a town have one leaking faucet each, how much water would be wasted in a day? in a year?
Answers for Sheet # 7 (Earth Day)
1) 1000 ml/0.25ml/drip = 4000 drips
2) 3.8 liters x 4000 drips/liter = 15,2000 drips
3) 0.36 liter/day/house
4) Water wasted by 100,000 houses in a day.
0.36 liters/day/house x 100,000 houses = 36,000 liters/day = 9474 gallons/day
Water wasted by 100,000 houses in a year.
9474 gallons/day x 365 days = 345,801 gallons