engineering

Olmos Dam

Olmos Dam is a engineering topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Olmos Dam rather than just read about it. In short: Olmos Dam is a detention dam located on the San Antonio River in San Antonio, Texas. It was built in the 1920s, following the disastrous September 1921 San Antonio floods.

Key takeaways

Olmos Dam belongs to engineering; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Olmos Dam to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Olmos Dam from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Olmos Dam is a detention dam located on the San Antonio River in San Antonio, Texas. It was built in the 1920s, following the disastrous September 1921 San Antonio floods. Work began on the dam on January 19, 1925, and it was completed in 1926; in 1929 a cut-off channel, to allow excess water to bypass the Great Bend in downtown, was completed. In the 1970s, improvements were made by the City of San Antonio and the San Antonio River Authority. In March 1979, an improvement was made to strengthen and anchor the dam, as well as modifying gate operations, in order to provide an emergency spillway. There are six gates within the dam, two of which are open at all times to a height of 2 ft (0.61 m). They are rotated once a week. Each gate is controlled via an actuator that is situated inside the dam's gatehouse. San Antonio Express-News history columnist Paula Allen has referred to the dam as "the jewel in the crown of San Antonio’s system of flood control." It has become a "staple structure north of downtown San Antonio." Excavations in the area around Olmos Dam, both prior to the dam's construction in the 1920s and in subsequent excavations such as in 1979, have yielded a good number of Native American artifacts.

See also Flash Flood Alley List of dams and reservoirs in Texas

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Olmos Dam

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Olmos Dam claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Olmos Dam before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Olmos Dam ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Olmos Dam

In research: Olmos Dam appears in engineering research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Olmos Dam in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Olmos Dam is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1926 establishments in Texas, Buildings and structures completed in 1926, Buildings and structures in San Antonio, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Olmos Dam outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study Olmos Dam in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Olmos Dam means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Olmos Dam out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Olmos Dam in simple terms?

Olmos Dam is a detention dam located on the San Antonio River in San Antonio, Texas. It was built in the 1920s, following the disastrous September 1921 San Antonio floods.

Why does Olmos Dam matter?

Because it connects several engineering ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Olmos Dam?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Olmos Dam.