water surface Definition and 23 Threads

Surface water is water located on top of land, forming terrestrial (surrounding by land on all sides) waterbodies, and may also be referred to as blue water, opposed to the seawater and waterbodies like the ocean.
The vast majority of surface water is produced by precipitation. As the climate warms in the spring, snowmelt runs off towards nearby streams and rivers contributing towards a large portion of human drinking water. Levels of surface water lessen as a result of evaporation as well as water moving into the ground becoming ground-water. Alongside being used for drinking water, surface water is also used for irrigation, wastewater treatment, livestock, industrial uses, hydropower, and recreation. For USGS water-use reports, surface water is considered freshwater when it contains less than 1,000 milligrams per liter (mg/L) of dissolved solids.There are three major types of surface water. Permanent (perennial) surface waters are present year round, and includes lakes, rivers and wetlands (marshes and swamps). Semi-permanent (ephemeral) surface water refers to bodies of water that are only present at certain times of the year including seasonally dry channels such as creeks, lagoons and waterholes. Human-made surface water is water that can be continued by infrastructures that humans have assembled. This would be dammed artificial lakes, canals and artificial ponds (e.g. garden ponds) or swamps. The surface water held by dams can be used for renewable energy in the form of hydropower. Hydropower is the forcing of surface water sourced from rivers and streams to produce energy.

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  1. davidjoe

    Can a glass of water be filled to its edge?

    Looking out the window on recent flights I have given some thought to the implications of the fact the bodies of water we see are never actually flat, anywhere, at any size. The earth beneath the bodies of water on its surface takes on the shape of a sphere of course, and one could say that...
  2. B

    B Water surface behavior under pressure change

    Hi togehter, this may be an easy one for most, but I'm really struggling with imagining the process. Suppose we have a compressed air vessel that is half filled with water. The pressure in the vessel drops from 10 bar to atmospheric pressure within a few seconds. How does the water surface...
  3. Daniel Petka

    I When is a water surface not dispersive?

    For my project, I need water waves of all frequencies to move at the same speed. I read this article, but struggled to grasp some concepts. The key idea of the article is that a raindrop hitting a water surface basically creates a pulse containing all the frequencies, and since the water is very...
  4. Dario56

    I How Does Surface Tension Balance Small Objects on Water Surface?

    When small object such as needle is put on the surface of water it displaces small amount of water which creates a depression under the object. Such depression increases surface area of the water because of which surface tension tends to decrease it. Explanation why surface tension balances the...
  5. S

    Simulating shape of spinning water surface

    I would like to simulate a simplified version of this phenomenon: where I will assume that the viscosity is zero and the liquid can therefore swirl around "laminarly" forever according to some velocity profile that I specify. How can I calculate the shape of the surface, at least in this...
  6. EF17xx

    Unpolarised light incident on a water surface

    Homework Statement Homework Equations n1/n2 = (sinθ2)/(sinθ1) = v2/v1 The Attempt at a Solution Moving from a lower refractive index to a higher refractive index. ( Lower density to higher density means faster speed to slower speed) The answer is answer B, I don't understand why.
  7. R

    Polarisation (light on water surface)

    Homework Statement A student looks at the sunlight reflected off a puddle of water. She puts a polarising (Polaroid) filter in front of her eye. As she rotates the filter the puddle appears darker then lighter. Explain this observation Homework EquationsThe Attempt at a Solution Here's my...
  8. I

    Acoustic impedance water surface in partially filled tank

    Hello guys, Consider a partially filled tank with water where the acoustic field can be described by the Helmholtz equation. The boundary condition at the water surface would be \frac{∂p}{∂\vec{n}} = -j\rho_0\omega\frac{p}{Z} where Z is the impedance of the water surface. What would be...
  9. Alettix

    Angle of Inclination of a Water Surface

    Homework Statement So the full problem is the following: "On the top of a truck, there is a cubic container with a side-lenght of 1,00 m and it's filled with 500 liters of water. The truck accelerates with 2.0 m/s2 in the x-direction during the whole experiment. When the watersurface has...
  10. Kaustubh sri

    Does the Permeability of Water Prevent Surface Disturbance in Aquariums?

    When we look in the aquerium , the fish moves from here to there but there is no disturbance at the surface of water . Why is it so? My attempt Actually I think that this problem is due to permiability of water. Am I right or wrong?
  11. A

    Elevation of Sun above water surface

    Homework Statement An underwater scuba diver sees the Sun at an apparent angle of 44.5° above the horizontal. What is the actual elevation angle of the Sun above the horizontal? (Use 1.333 for the index of refraction of water.) Homework Equations n1sin(Θ1) = n2sin(Θ2) The Attempt at...
  12. J

    Is the water surface truly flat in a bath tub?

    Fill a bath tub with six inches of water is the water completely flat or level on top? John
  13. K

    Calculating the Amount of Lauric Acid Dispersed on Water Surface

    Homework Statement Lauric acid , CH3(CH2)10CO2H has been dispersed 500cm2+ on the water surface. Assume that the cross-sectional area of acid molecule to be 18.2A2+ and the density of the initial acid is 0.78gcm3-, calculate the amount of acid that dispersed on the surface of water. * the...
  14. A

    Why does eg a falling stone crate many ripples on a water surface?

    So I've studied physics at the university quite a bit and was a bit surprised when I couldn't answer this simple question a friend asked me. When something lands in water why are several ripples created? Like why is the resulting water wave made up of several peaks and valleys and not just one...
  15. V

    Water Surface Tension: Investigating Condensation Formation

    Hey guys, I'm working on a project which demonstrates the venturi effect, by flowing gas through a nozzle (which is housed in a 2 piece housing) and it flows out the exit, the air is picking up water along the way. We have noticed that water droplets are forming in the corners of the...
  16. K

    Calculate depth below the water surface

    Homework Statement Calculate depth below the water surface of the centre of pressure of the water pressure acting on the submerged triangular lamina. The triangle is 2m below the surface and is shaped like this: Hypotenuse is sqrt(13) Other sides are 2 and 3, where the side with length 2 is...
  17. Y

    Can Spinning Water Measure Gravity?

    Homework Statement I've just done a experiment about the curved water surface when spinning. I want to ask (1) what theory involve in it? also, I use some software to mersure the curved water surface and i get the equation of the curve, I get the rotation speed (w) The coeff. of...
  18. P

    Water Surface with Bernouli's Equation

    Hi! I got a question concerning a solution to calculate the evolution of surface heights of oceans. Since I'm only interested in the surface itself I omit the volume underneath and the air above the surface. I grabbed a linearized and simplified version of the Bernouli-Equation which I looked...
  19. C

    What kind of thermodynamic process is an air bubble rising to the water surface?

    There is an air bubble at a certain depth and it's rising to the surface of the water. The temperature of the water is constant at a certain temperature. The gas inside the bubble expands as it rises to the surface, but does the temperature of the air stay the same? Is this an isothermal or...
  20. R

    How will the water surface of this planet looks like ?

    Lets suppose we have a planet made from two half-sphere with the same radius (R) made from matter with different density. The left-half-sphere is made from rocks (5gr/cm3) and the right-half-sphere is made from iron (8gr/cm3). Then we pour water on up to about one-tenth of the sphere...
  21. T

    Water Surface: Is it Flat or Rounded?

    hi guys.. i don't know much about physics. and if my questions sound stupid .. please excuse me. According to what I've known, the water surface is flat, and we use it for some sort of measurement like a water level, but if we go to outer space, we would see the water surface not flat , it's...
  22. C

    Welcome! Let's Discuss: Block on Water Surface

    Hello all, Its my first thread here! I'll start things off with a (simple?) question. Suppose a block is suspended on a surface of water. It comprises potential energy quite obviously. As the block desends down the water level, it loses PE. According to the rules of conservation of energy...
  23. P

    Air Bubble Volume at Water Surface

    Dear Sirs, i need your help in this question, truthly i can't solve it. so kindly asking you to send me an answer with proper explanation if possible. the question is: an air bubble has a volume of 2.5 cm3 when released at a depth of 40m in water. What will its volume be when it reches...
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