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Chalkboard imageWater Science Activity Center

Opinion Surveys:

  • Biggest water problem in the future?
  • Vote for your favorite water body!
  • How serious are these environmental problems?
  • Water Shortage! How would you fix it?
  • Where does the water cycle begin?

Challenge Questions:

  • How much water falls during a storm?
  • How much water does a dripping faucet waste?
  • How much water does it take to grow a hamburger?

True/False Quizzes:

  • Water properties
  • Groundwater

Questionnaires:

  • How does your home drinking water taste?
  • What is your daily home water use?

Water Science Activities
Drip Calculator: How much water does a leaking faucet waste?

Check your faucets at home -- do any of them drip? Maybe it's just a small drip -- how much water can a little drip waste? True, a single drip won't waste much water, but think about each faucet in your home dripping a little bit all day long. What if every faucet in every home on your block ... in your town ... in your state also dripped? The drips would add up to a flood of water wasted down the drain.

There is no scientific definition of the volume of a faucet drip, but after measuring a number of kitchen and bathroom sink faucets, for our calculations below (numbers are rounded), we are going to use 1/4 milliliter (ml) as the volume of a faucet drip. By these drip estimates:

  • One gallon = 15,140 drips
  • One liter = 4,000 drips

Looking at it this way, it seems like that drop of water down the drain is pretty insignificant. Use the form below to see how all those drops flowing in "real time" can add up to a flood.

Number of
homes
Number of
faucets in
each home
Number of
drips per
minute

Here's how much water would be wasted (numbers may be rounded):

Drips per day: Liters per day:
Gallons (US) per day: Gallons (US) per year:
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