Control the water
Keep drop height steady when comparing wheel shapes.
Water Wheel Workshop
Compare water flow, drop height, bucket shape and useful mechanical power.
Grades 3–5 · Physics
Your goal
Use no more than 2 liters per second with a 2 meter drop. Test a wheel and load that deliver at least 19 watts.
Reduced motion is on. The controls still update the scene.
Adjust the water and the wheel, then test. Compare flat paddles and cups under the same flow, height and load.
L/s
m
An illustrative steady model with 1 kg per liter and gravitational acceleration 9.81 m/s². Flat paddles capture 25 percent and cups 65 percent before the assumed load losses. These are teaching choices, not measured wheel efficiencies or construction advice.
Related resources
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Study as flashcards
Learn with Water Wheel Workshop
Water Wheel Workshop makes the transfer from falling water to useful mechanical power visible for elementary learners. Students adjust flow and drop height, compare flat paddles with cups, and choose the load attached to the wheel. Testing reveals how much power the water supplies and how much the load receives. Goals limit the available flow and hold the drop height steady, encouraging fair comparisons of wheel design. The remaining power stays visible as unused energy and losses, so the wheel never creates more energy than the water provides.
What to look for
Compare cup and paddle
Test both designs with the same flow and useful load.
Account for losses
The useful output is always a fraction of the falling water power.
For teachers and curious learners
Explore water energy transfer under a controlled load. Ask students to predict what will happen, change one setting, and explain what they observe. Learn gives a starting point. Practice and Challenge offer new goals with the same scene.
Illustrative steady hydraulic power and assumed wheel/load efficiencies; not a build specification.