Industrial Visit to White Horse Leisure Centre, Wantage

Industrial Visit to White Horse Leisure Centre, Wantage

Introduction

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I visited the White Horse Leisure Centre in Wantage, this is the local

town sports centre. Its facilities include a swimming pool, gym, dance

studio, tennis courts and large sports hall where many activities take

place such as basketball, badminton and trampolining. Physics is used

through out the sports centre in the equipment and the building

itself, I am looking at two of these situations where physics can be

applied to sport.

Heating the Swimming Pool

The swimming pool is 25m long by 12.5m wide and kept at a temperature

of 29.5°C; this is maintained by a constant circulation of water. The

water level is kept just above the pool rim this means water flows

over the edges and into drains around the whole pool. This water is

then heated under the pool and pumped back in through many small jets

along a central panel positioned along the length of the pool. This

constant heating of the pool is necessary to maintain a comfortable

temperature for users and prevent risks of hypothermia; this costs the

centre money but is necessary for comfort and safety. The temperature

falls due to heat loss, this happens all around the pool but mainly on

the surface due to the cold air surrounding the pool. This heat loss

will be mainly due to evaporation, this is where water particles have

more energy than normal so are able to overcome forces of attraction

and escape from the surface of the liquid. The rate of evaporation in

the swimming pool is more quite high as it has a large surface area,

the humidity is kept low by a humidifier and the temperature is quite

high. In order to maintain a constant temperature physics is used.

Using the formula:

Energy Transferred = Mass x Specific Heat Capacity x Temperature

Change

Where the specific heat capacity is an individual property of water

the energy needed to heat the pool up from a certain temperature can