Where does the water in the sink come from? Well, lots of faraway places – but to reach a faucet, it first has to be pumped up into a “water tower,” a giant tank high off the ground. When the water comes back down, it pushes down on itself and rushes through underground pipes to every building in town. Each water tower holds about 1 day’s worth of water needed for its town. It can be a million gallons or more — enough for 50 swimming pools!
Wee ones: If you filled up your water bottle before school, during school, before soccer practice, and after soccer practice, how many times did you fill up your water bottle that day?
Little kids: If it takes 8 minutes to fill a bucket of water from your faucet, but 10 minutes to fill your bathtub, which one takes longer to fill? Bonus: If it takes 11 minutes to fill a bucket using a faucet, but only 3 minutes to fill the same bucket using a garden hose, how many more minutes does the faucet take than the garden hose?
Big kids: Can you “spell” the number 1 million in digits? Bonus: If a water tower starts with 1 million gallons, and then 100,000 gallons are used that morning, how much water is left in the tank before it refills?
Answers:
Wee ones: 4 times.
Little kids: The tub takes longer. Bonus: 8 minutes longer.
Big kids: 1,000,000. Bonus: 900,000 gallons.
