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So, looking into this: hoses -flexible, often higher pressure, usually round x-section. tubes -often like pipes but x-section can be of various geometries, ro

by mc32 3y ago

So, looking into this: hoses -flexible, often higher pressure, usually round x-section. tubes -often like pipes but x-section can be of various geometries, round, square, oval, etc. often flexible. pipes - often rigid, often metal, round x-section.

dredmorbius 3y ago
Hose derives from clothing -- "hose" were leg coverings, and in German, Hosen means "trousers". So a tube of cloth, or based around cloth (e.g., firehose). Garden hoses are typically fabricated from cloth and rubber or plastic. A few sources sugggest that tubes tend to be structural, where pipes tend to be functional. E.g., <https://www.appmfg.com/blog/what-is-the-difference-between-tubes-pipes-hoses https://www.appmfg.com/blog/what-is-the-difference-between-t...> (I suspect that's general trade copy as I'm finding it on several suppliers' sites.) A distinction that occurs to me is that both pipes and hoses may be high-pressure, though typically tubes are not. Pipes are often classified by the material used in fabrication: wood, copper, clay, steel. Hose is almost always flexible, and often used for temporary or mobile applications (air hose, fire hose, garden hose, dryer hose). Another related term is duct, which comes from Latin ducere, "to lead", which is what ducts do: they lead somewhere. <https://www.etymonline.com/word/duct https://www.etymonline.com/word/duct> I'm not sure that pipes must be circular or rounded, as "square pipe" is in fact a thing (though a minority thing). Another distinction between pipes and tubes is that pipes are specific to transport, that is, something flows through a pipe. A tube however describes a shape and there can be structural tubes, either hollow or filled, through which there is no flow. One example is sleeves used to form concrete support columns: these are tubes (often of paperboard), into which structural steel and cement mix are poured, resulting in solid, static columns. That's discussed here: <https://www.eng-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=455180 https://www.eng-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=455180> We also talk of "speaking tubes", which were used for communications, especially on ships or in factories. There are containers which are tubes, which hold and emit their contents, but contents don't flow through them, transiting end-to-end: toothpaste tube, tube of caulk, grease tube. Some animals have tubular bones, most notably birds. Putting this together, I'd argue that a tube is a general shape which may apply to a usually rigid pipe or a flexible hose, which are often used to duct fluids (gasses or liquids) from some source to a destination.

by mc32 3y ago

dredmorbius 3y ago

Hose derives from clothing -- "hose" were leg coverings, and in German, Hosen means "trousers". So a tube of cloth, or based around cloth (e.g., firehose). Garden hoses are typically fabricated from cloth and rubber or plastic. A few sources sugggest that tubes tend to be structural, where pipes tend to be functional. E.g., <https://www.appmfg.com/blog/what-is-the-difference-between-tubes-pipes-hoses https://www.appmfg.com/blog/what-is-the-difference-between-t...> (I suspect that's general trade copy as I'm finding it on several suppliers' sites.) A distinction that occurs to me is that both pipes and hoses may be high-pressure, though typically tubes are not. Pipes are often classified by the material used in fabrication: wood, copper, clay, steel. Hose is almost always flexible, and often used for temporary or mobile applications (air hose, fire hose, garden hose, dryer hose). Another related term is duct, which comes from Latin ducere, "to lead", which is what ducts do: they lead somewhere. <https://www.etymonline.com/word/duct https://www.etymonline.com/word/duct> I'm not sure that pipes must be circular or rounded, as "square pipe" is in fact a thing (though a minority thing). Another distinction between pipes and tubes is that pipes are specific to transport, that is, something flows through a pipe. A tube however describes a shape and there can be structural tubes, either hollow or filled, through which there is no flow. One example is sleeves used to form concrete support columns: these are tubes (often of paperboard), into which structural steel and cement mix are poured, resulting in solid, static columns. That's discussed here: <https://www.eng-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=455180 https://www.eng-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=455180> We also talk of "speaking tubes", which were used for communications, especially on ships or in factories. There are containers which are tubes, which hold and emit their contents, but contents don't flow through them, transiting end-to-end: toothpaste tube, tube of caulk, grease tube. Some animals have tubular bones, most notably birds. Putting this together, I'd argue that a tube is a general shape which may apply to a usually rigid pipe or a flexible hose, which are often used to duct fluids (gasses or liquids) from some source to a destination.