How Do I Calculate Annual Precipitation for a Watershed?

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AI Thread Summary
To calculate annual precipitation for a watershed, the formula to use is change in storage = input - output + precipitation - evaporation. It is important to convert all units to a consistent system, such as meters and years, to avoid confusion. The discussion emphasizes that using scientific notation can help manage large numbers resulting from unit conversions. Participants agree that negative powers in scientific notation are acceptable and indicate very small values. Proper unit transformation is crucial for accurate precipitation calculations.
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Hello every one, I wish if you could help with this problem :

b]1. Homework Statement [/b]

Given the following informaiton for a paritculart watershed, determine the amount of the annual precipitaion received


Homework Equations



water shed area : 4530 m^2
average flowrate : 39.6 m^3/second
Average infiltration 9.2 * 10 ^ -7 m/s
Evapo-transpirtaiton : 45 cm/year
change is storage -23.9 cm/year


The Attempt at a Solution



I am sure that the formula to solve this is : change in storage = input - output + prec. - Evaportaion .

However, I have some doubts :

First, I assumed that the Evapo-transpirtaiton is the same as : Evaportaion so I am going to substitute it in the formula .


Second, which is the major :
The units - do we need to convert the units ?
My idea is to convert all cm to m but then when prec.is found : how to know if m/year

or m/s ?


Hope hearing replying soon =)
 
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Just transform all to a single unit. No matter what transformation you make if you have a single set of units the result will be right. And after you can transform the result in any unit system you want or anything that fits better, m/year maybe.

e.g.

m instead of any other length unit
year instead of second ...as at such a surface area the second seems small.
 
oh,
so, you're saying that I need to make all cm to m and all seconds to years.

But the numbers will be sooo big because there are a really huge amount of seconds in one year ..

So, is that ok ?
 
That's where the scientific notation (6.02x1023) comes in handy.
 
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Ok, thnx I 'll try this >
 
Borek you made me laugh :)
 
But, what if I got powers with(-) sign ?
 
That's OK, that's part of the notation. Do you know what it means?
 
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ya .. thnx alot
 
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