Physics homework question.?

Question

Two dams for man made lakes of equal depth. However, one of the lakes stretches 15 km in distance, while the other is 30km in distance. What effect does the difference in length of the lakes have on the pressure on the dams?

Answer 1

They are both the same depth, so the water pressure, in psi or equivalent, is the same.

But if the width of the dams are different, the longer dam would have to be stronger since it has more area, and therefore the force exerted on the walls would be higher.

i don't know what "in distance" means.

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Answer 2

the water pressure generated depends solely upon the depth from which the water is ejected. the best way to visualize this is the concept that the amount of pressure on a square inch of surface area is equal to the weight of the column of water that is directly above that square inch. this height is refereed to as the amount of "head" that a dam has.

the bigger lake could probably generate more power because it would probably output water in a given day without loss of depth.