Notes on the nature of Dams

October 17th, 2022 1 Minutes

By CBIRH Student Intern Sasha Buckley

Hello everyone. It’s your favourite student intern, Sasha. Today, we have a dam, the Corra Linn Dam, to be exact (Collection no. 0047.0408). You’re probably all wondering what a dam does (you probably already know). A dam, in this case, lets water through.

You might be confused as to what the point is of a dam that allows water through, but something I’m sure you’re more curious to know is: what is water?

Water is a mix of two parts hydrogen and one part oxygen. It is typically a liquid at room temperature, and most living things depend on it to continue being living things. Even humans need water (yes, you need to drink water).

Does this tell us anything useful about the dam? It doesn’t, But it does tell us anything about what the dam interacts with; indeed, it does.

Now to answer the question you’ve all been curious about – why does the dam let water through? Typically dams are supposed to keep water flowing from point A to point D. They do. However, this dam is for another purpose. This dam is meant to generate electricity.

You see, water in rivers typically tends to move. Things that move have energy. So you can take that energy by building a concrete structure over a river that collects that energy, which you can now use to power that Xbox (yes, the Xbox requires electricity). So as you can see, you are just as dependent on the dam as on the water it lets through.

You should not question the dam as not only could it end your water supply, but more importantly, your favourite pet console is on the line (your PC also needs electricity).