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[Roy Morgan <k1lky AT earthlink.net>]

> A ram pump requires head and flow; the comibnation of the two
> determines delivery volume and pressure.

There are three types of "head" (fluid dynamically speaking):

Elevation head: the water has energy because it's higher up than  
something else.

Velocity head: The water has energy because its a mass in motion.

Pressure head: It has energy because of the pressure it has.

I have no experience with ram pumps, but it seems that they use two of  
the three kinds of head.  I'm guessing that they use a certain amount  
of water to move a smaller amount of water up.  I am pretty sure that  
ram jet engines for rockets and the like are extremely inefficient,  
but that may not apply at all to water ram pumps.

I imagine that hydro-electric turbines, as at the Hoover Dam, are very  
carefully designed to use the most they can of all three types of head.

Roy


> The source water is typically
> at least several feet above the ram pump. Such a condition is
> impossible in that forty-foot tube down to an underground stream.
>
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Roy Morgan
k1lky AT earthlink.net
529 Cobb St.
Groton NY, 13073