victoria falls is about 108 m high, and sometimes as much as 550,000,000 m3 of water rushes over the edge each minute. what is the waterfalls total power? use a density of water of 1000 kg/m3.

Question

victoria falls is about 108 m high, and sometimes as much as 550,000,000 m3 of water rushes over the edge each minute. what is the waterfalls total power? use a density of water of 1000 kg/m3.

Answer 1

Use potential energy of one cubic meter of water at 108 m high

= 1000 * 9.81 * 108 Joules

then cubic meters per second = (1/60)(5.5 * 10 ^8)

so
Joules per second = Watts power
= (9810*108* 5.5 /60)10^8 Watts (a lot!)