- #36
sophiecentaur
Science Advisor
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"sizing the output piping (resistance) can control the flow rate"
Unfortunately this is where that particular analogy can break down. The resistance of the pipe isn't really analogous to electrical resistance because the real work done or energy transferred is not within the pipe - especially when the flow is reasonably smooth.
Even James Joule found it very hard to measure any heating effect due to water flowing in a pipe or even when it lands after a fall of several hundred metres because water has such a huge specific heat capacity compared with the GPE it has due to its height.
In contrast, electrical resistor gets noticeably hot with the energy, supplied by the battery, etc.
The main energy transfer in a water system has to be when the moving water actually does some mechanical work - involving a turbine or ram. Best to treat the pipes as ideal wires and include explicit 'machines' as the energy transducers.