WEEK 1.1: WATER PRESSURE ISSUE

During our first out of class meeting on Saturday of Week 1, we brainstormed for possible issues that we might have to overcome in order to create a successful product. These problems involve issues of precision, accuracy, consistency, and the application of laws of physics within the real world. One major decision we made specifically to avoid a faulty product was deciding that our watering system would deliver water to plants based on volume of water delivered as opposed to being based on water flow and time. We applied concepts of physics to determine that water pressure, which water flow is dependent on, is a property that varies based on changing volume, and is therefore unreliable as a means of consistent water delivery (figure 3). Instead, we decided that our watering system would deliver water through fixed volume chambers, ensuring the same amount of water would be delivered to plants regardless of the volume of water in the system's main tank.

 Figure 3: A chart depicting the relationship between pressure and volume of a substance. [1]

References:

[1] Gas Laws & Physics. [Online]. Available FTP: http://www.sdm.scot.nhs.uk Directory: gas_laws/