Output Measuring

General water gun discussion.
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martianshark
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Output Measuring

Post by martianshark » Mon Aug 31, 2009 11:33 pm

How do you measure the output of a water gun? Do you need a special tool or something? :confused:

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Silence
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Re: Output Measuring

Post by Silence » Tue Sep 01, 2009 12:01 am

Our article on measuring water gun statistics is a good starting point. Besides the technique it mentions, you could also shoot into a bucket for a measured amount of time (use a stopwatch or chronograph). This is better for air pressure and spring pressure water guns, whose output drops off over time.

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SSCBen
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Re: Output Measuring

Post by SSCBen » Tue Sep 01, 2009 12:50 am

A stopwatch, bucket, and measuring cup or scale is really all you need to get average output over a duration. Find out how much water is shot out over a certain duration (you don't need to shoot until the water gun runs out--this can be useful if you have an air pressure water gun and want to find the average output for the first few seconds which is higher than that of longer durations). Divide the water shot out by the duration it was shot out in and you have the output.

If you didn't know, 1 g of water (at typical conditions) has a volume of 1 cm^3. So you can use a scale to measure volume as well.

For the output at an instant... you're out of luck at the moment. I've thought of a few nifty ways but they all involve a good deal of math, additional information obtained from sensors, and are approximate at best.

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