why are pumps calulated in Heads?

gurrieman69

i was in class and we went over pumps but the teacher did not have the answer and was hoping someone could help?

icesailor

Pumping Heads:

What didn't he explain that you didn't understand?

I can give you a low knowledge comprehensive explanation but I need to know what you don't know or understand.

gurrieman69

heads

i know that it is a distance but why is it called head?

Tom Blackwell_2

lift

The convention of head as used in pumps comes from the amount of pressure required to lift water-as in an open system. At least the industry uses head for all pump measurements and does not use different terms. 2.31 feet equal 1 psi and one atmosphere is 34 feet.

gurrieman69

H.E.A.D

my teacher thought the reason we use "head" is because the letters stand for something. What?

NRT_Rob

I don't know for sure

but since it always is expected to refer to a height, I imagine head is just referring to the fact that we're talking about the top of a column, or it's head.



If you have 15 ft of head available on the pump, it will push a column of water 15' high in the air.



I'm guessing, but I think it's a better guess than some mysterious acronym