Competency #4

Answer and Explanation

Hurricanes often lift the roofs off houses.

  1. Use Bernoulli's Principle to explain why.

    The velocity of the air inside your house (under the roof) is zero. During a hurricane, the velocity of air above your roof can be very high. Bernoulli’s Principle says that as the fluid velocity increases, the pressure decreases. Therefore, the pressure inside your house will remain constant while the pressure above your roof will decrease. Thus, the pressure inside your house will be greater and can, in some instances, push the roof up off of your house.
  2. Why should you keep your windows open during a hurricane?

    Keeping the windows open allows for air to travel from the high pressure region (inside your house) to the low pressure region (outside your house) and this allows the pressures inside and outside your house to be closer to each other and reduce the chance that your roof will be pushed off.

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