Problem

Water flows from point A to points D and E as shown. Some of the flow parameters are known, as shown in the table. Determine the unknown parameters

Solution

From the law of mass conservation we can see:

Note that in a problem such as this the individual calculations do not pose a problem. It is the strategy used to solve it that is key. In this problem, we started from some knowns and one equation. Even though we couldn’t see all the way to the end from Step 1, with each new calculation another possibility opened up. This is the ‘art of problem solving’ and it can only be learned by practice!