Many homes and commercial buildings have rain gutters. The gutters were originally designed to divert water away from the foundation of the building and thus prevent water damage.
Most gutters are fabricated on the construction site. This allows the gutters to be as long as needed (no seams) to fit the building. Assume you have 12 inch wide flat sheet metal to bend upwards to form right angles to create a commercial rain gutter as shown in the drawing above.
In recent years there has been a surge in installing rain harvesting systems. In these systems, rain is collected via rain gutters and stored in large tanks. This water is then used to water gardens and sometimes for household use.
What is the largest (cross sectional area) gutter you can create?
If our house has a roof area of 1200 sq ft, how many gallons of water can we collect in a 1 inch rainfall?
Design a tank to hold the water.
