Water speed

[Nightwolf]

so based on the threads i have found physics now affects water speed, i.e. sharp turns in a river slow down the water speed.

is water speed affected by depth/height?

if i have a water fall pouring into a river below with wheels, does the height of the water fall above the river below affect speed of the below river? if my water fall is 2 blocks high as opposed to 4?

can i place a large water wheel that requires 2 blocks of depth in a one block deep river? or does the whole river have to be 2 blocks deep for the large wheel to work properly? (yes i know the wheel itself has to be in a 2 block deep spot)

does river width affect speed? are we talking about volume based physics now?

[Inanimate]

Water simulation observations:
1. There is simulated Bernoulli principles, it only takes into consideration water CMS and surface area (always in 1 blocks).
2. Water speed is simulated on the top surface of the water. Therefore, drops do not affect water speed assuming water does not spread. Furthermore, water doesn't seem to be measured if there isn't a "top surface" so drops do NOT provide CMS (See 3)
3. Water will always spread evenly when given a split, it seems to be always even.
4. Fully efficient Mechanical Water Pump seems to provide 0.5 CMS, DEFAULT water source provides 1 CMS (map editor can scale this value).

Observation 1 and 2 taken together, means that when water is "placed" into a plain, it will provide 1 CMS divided by the tiles spaces where it can spread; a 1 CMS water source will provide 1 CMS in a 1 tile channel, 0.5 CMS in a 2 wide channel, etc. Conversely, if you condense 5 water sources into a 2 tile channel, this is 5/2 = 2.5 CMS in that 2 tile channel.

Looking at Observation 2 and 3, this means a step drop function will split the CMS evenly:
EX1: Number is elevation, top view with water entering at height 2 at the V.
- V -
3 2 3
2 2 2
2 2 2
When the water exits out of the 1 width channel into 3 channel (height 2), the water speed is split 3 ways after exiting the 3 2 3 row.
This means if there is 3 CMS entering the above height map, it spreads out to 1 CMS at the second row (height-2 level).

EX2
Since this is a water simulation with NO diagonals, you can artificially accelerate and "concentrate" with a step-drop, where the water can only drop in 2 directions from the previous block:
- V V V -
4 3 3 3 4
4 2 1 2 4
4 1 0 1 4
3 1 0 1 3
3 1 0 1 3

Assuming the water isn't stuck in a dam, the water will concentrate all the CMS at the height-3 into the height-0.

As for wheels:
As you noticed, water wheels provide power per CMS.
As long as the water flowing through the wheel and the wheel is moving it will generate water.
Wheel seems to observe CMS as the average along the wheel length, so a large water wheel measures along 5 tiles.
This means even though water level of 1 will move the wheel, that only provides CMS>0 for 3 of the 5 wheel length tiles, so the fastest large wheel has water at height 2, where the CMS is picked up on all 5 wheel lengths.
This also means you shroud those water wheels on both sides for maximum speed, because this forces all the water CMS into the wheel.

[aaror]

Side note, water wheels also seem to create a drag force. If you play something like the 1000 islands map and put water wheels across an area between two islands the water will just flow on the opposite side of both islands, and power will drop to almost 0.