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265 litres a day!

How much water does a tree use?

How many days would it take you to drink as much as a tree does in a day?

Most people just drink 2 litres a day!

Challenge 1! 3

Can you drink as much water as a tree?

•An average tree takes up 265 litres a day from the ground through its roots.

•That’s 180ml a minute!

•Trees roots are usually as long as the tree is tall, so a tree 5 metres tall collects water 5 metres away from the trunk.

•This is the same as a person drinking 750ml of water through a straw in 10 seconds.

•How much water can you drink though a straw in 10 seconds?

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Drain

Transpiration

(The evaporation of water from plants)8 trees = 2120litres

How trees can reduce ‘Creep’.

Challenge 2! 5

How else do trees help drainage?

•The roots from trees make the soil more porous. This means it can soak up more water.

•Which is more porous, a sponge or a stone?

•Tip 500ml of water over both items, and measure how much water you collect underneath.

•The more porous the material, the less water you should collect.

Challenge 3 6

How else do trees help drainage?

•Can you make a material more porous?

•Take a piece of clay and pour water over it. Collect and measure the water.

•Experiment with ways of making the clay more porous and repeat the test.