Science Buddies: Leaky Clues to Dam Design: How Reservoir Height Affects Hydroel

It's hard to believe that the same water that you use every day to quench your thirst, cook with, bathe in, swim in, and wash your clothes and dishes, is capable of another trick-it can make electricity. Electricity can be generated through the flow or through the fall of water. A big, fast-flowing river, for instance, contains a lot of moving energy that provides enough pressure to turn the blades of a turbine and run an electric generator. This same pressure can also be created though through the fall of water from a great height. Dams are the way we store water and raise it to a great height to create pressure. The more water that is stored, the higher the height of the reservoir becomes, and the greater the pressure that is available to run an electric generator. In this energy and power science fair project, you'll make a small model of a dam and poke holes at different points along the dam wall to investigate the places where the pressure and the potential for generating electricity is the greatest.