Consider a bucket of water with two holes of equal area through which water is discharged. The water can flow out through hole ( B ), at the bottom, or through the down-spout, which begins at the top ( T ) and has its opening the same distance below the water level as the center of hole ( B).

  \-------------------------/
   \                       /
    \                     /__
     \                  T/--+|
      \                 /   ||
       \               /    ||
    ____\             /     ||
    -----\B          /      ||
          \---------/

Ignoring any friction effects, out of which opening will the water flow faster, and why?

(In reply to Julius Sumner Miller by brianjn)

brianjn is correct, but in the problem given here, pipe 'T' effectively brings the upper hole down to the lower level in my opinion.

Picky detail:  it looks like the T pipe comes to the level of the bottom edge of the B pipe.  So some of the B pipe hole is at a higher level than the terminus of the vertical T pipe.  Therefore, due to this detail, I think water will come out of the T hole slightly faster (ignoring resistance of flow through pipes).

Posted by Larry on 2006-09-29 07:16:19