Engineering Commons^™

A Method For Plotting Isohyetal Maps Using An Analog Computer, Maurice George Kirwan

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The ability of the analog computer to stimulate physical phenomena is used in conjunction with a resistance paper model of the Walnut Gulch watershed in Arizona to plot constant precipitation maps from data obtained from recorded rainfall. Voltages which are proportional to rainfall at a specific raingage, located at scaled points of the resistance paper model, set up an electric field on the resistive sheet which is detected and processed by the computer. The detected potential is compared to a reference potential, or "precipitation value", and the necessary analog networks allow plotting of the equipotential line which is directly analogous …