OK You Science Buffs

[PinkFloyd]

You have a nice level stream or creek... We're not including a good sized river here... Even if the stream or creek has 6 inches of water, why does it just run one way???

Living here in the country, there are streams and creeks everywhere... Some have maybe 5 feet of water and some have only afew inches, but they still flow in one direction...


What scientific reason makes a small stream or creek move ??? Since it's level, why doesn't it stand still ??? Is it gravity or what???


:shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug:

[FAX]

This is just a wild guess, Mr. Pinkfloyd, but I think maybe the water is trying to get as far away from Denver as possible.

FAX

[NewChief]

It's magic!

[Baby Lee]

You have a nice level stream or creek... We're not including a good sized river here... Even if the stream or creek has 6 inches of water, why does it just run one way???

Living here in the country, there are streams and creeks everywhere... Some have maybe 5 feet of water and some have only afew inches, but they still flow in one direction...


What scientific reason makes a small stream or creek move ??? Since it's level, why doesn't it stand still ??? Is it gravity or what???


:shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug:
1. It's not perfectly level.
2. It's not level over the entire course of the stream.

So the stream is supplied with water from disparate sources, and the stream constitutes a fluid body from it's inception to it's termination. The termination is at a point lower than the rest of the route, overall, and the forces of gravity send the water to that low point, and all water upstream of that low/termination point, moves in a unified manner and direction to replace the displaced volume.

[milkman]

It's because Denver blows and Oakland sucks.

[Warrior5]

You have a nice level stream or creek... We're not including a good sized river here... Even if the stream or creek has 6 inches of water, why does it just run one way???

Living here in the country, there are streams and creeks everywhere... Some have maybe 5 feet of water and some have only afew inches, but they still flow in one direction...


What scientific reason makes a small stream or creek move ??? Since it's level, why doesn't it stand still ??? Is it gravity or what???


:shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug:

Higher pressure upstream and lower pressure downstream.

[PinkFloyd]

1. It's not perfectly level.
2. It's not level over the entire course of the stream.

So the stream is supplied with water from disparate sources, and the stream constitutes a fluid body from it's inception to it's termination. The termination is at a point lower than the rest of the route, overall, and the forces of gravity send the water to that low point, and all water upstream of that low/termination point, moves in a unified manner and direction to replace the displaced volume.






:hmmm: :hmmm: :hmmm: :hmmm: :hmmm: :hmmm: :hmmm: :hmmm:

Your saying one end of the stream is higher than the other... Even if it's 500 miles long ??? Sounds good to me...


I also like the Denver - Oakland ideas... ROFL

[Fire Me Boy!]

Water seeks its own level till equibrium is atained.

[Rain Man]

I'll go with Baby Lee's explanation, but to be really thorough I would also want to add the following forces:

1. Lunar gravity
2. Disruptions caused by swimming fish
3. Thermodynamic forces caused by tectonics and solar radiation
4. Wind
5. Gators
6. Possibility of large water mills upstream or downstream
7. Possibility of large dams upstream or downstream
8. Motion required to maintain leveling when an animal urinates in the stream or a person pours their Starbucks into the stream
9. The water is all moving toward a giant maelstrom
10. Something to do with squid

[Rain Man]

:hmmm: :hmmm: :hmmm: :hmmm: :hmmm: :hmmm: :hmmm: :hmmm:

Your saying one end of the stream is higher than the other... Even if it's 500 miles long ??? Sounds good to me...


Water is pretty good at detecting small changes in elevation.

[Fire Me Boy!]

I'll go with Baby Lee's explanation, but to be really thorough I would also want to add the following forces:

1. Lunar gravity
2. Disruptions caused by swimming fish
3. Thermodynamic forces caused by tectonics and solar radiation
4. Wind
5. Gators
6. Possibility of large water mills upstream or downstream
7. Possibility of large dams upstream or downstream
8. Motion required to maintain leveling when an animal urinates in the stream or a person pours their Starbucks into the stream
9. The water is all moving toward a giant maelstrom
10. Something to do with squid
This also affects women's menstrual cycles. All of it. Especially the squid.

[Sully]

I'm not a science buff, but when i want to learn more science-type stuff, I always watch this show.
I hope it helps.

http://thetravisty.com/Saturday_Night_Live/wmv/Space_the_Infinite_Frontier.htm

[PinkFloyd]

I'll go with Baby Lee's explanation, but to be really thorough I would also want to add the following forces:

1. Lunar gravity
2. Disruptions caused by swimming fish
3. Thermodynamic forces caused by tectonics and solar radiation
4. Wind
5. Gators
6. Possibility of large water mills upstream or downstream
7. Possibility of large dams upstream or downstream
8. Motion required to maintain leveling when an animal urinates in the stream or a person pours their Starbucks into the stream
9. The water is all moving toward a giant maelstrom
10. Something to do with squid


Better not be any gators or squid around here !!! ROFL

[MichaelH]

It depends on what side of the continental divide you live on.

[PinkFloyd]

It depends on what side of the continental divide you live on.


What happens if you live RIGHT ON the divide ???

[milkman]

What happens if you live RIGHT ON the divide ???

You get a natural bedet.

[tiptap]

Didn't you watch Jurassic Park. This is a Chaotic conditioned and the answer is only statistical. As opposed to certainity that water seeks to reach the ocean level from elevated starting point.

[LabRat38]

First off, the total stream as stated before is not completely level, almost nothing in nature is completely level. To keep it simple first you need to assume the stream is a long, isolated system. This assumptiion is obviously incorrect but it allows for the easiest explanation of the phenomena without involving infinite variables. So with this assumption we can then follow the flow of one water molecule from the "beginning" to the "end" of the stream. In any system the system is constantly trying to achieve the lowest potential energy. This is always more stable. Therefore, we know that the single molecule is also trying to achieve the lowest possible potential energy. Therefore, knowing that potential energy can be expressed as the folling equation: potential energy = mass X force X height and knowing that the "end" of the stream is lower than the "beginning" of the stream you can see that the potential energy would be lower at the "end" since the mass of the one water molecule is equal at any point in the stream and force (expressed as gravity in this situation) is approximately the same at any point in the stream. This explains the physics of the streams flow.

[DMAC]

Also if it is spring-fed, it is being pushed as well as pulled.

[PinkFloyd]

First off, the total stream as stated before is not completely level, almost nothing in nature is completely level. To keep it simple first you need to assume the stream is a long, isolated system. This assumptiion is obviously incorrect but it allows for the easiest explanation of the phenomena without involving infinite variables. So with this assumption we can then follow the flow of one water molecule from the "beginning" to the "end" of the stream. In any system the system is constantly trying to achieve the lowest potential energy. This is always more stable. Therefore, we know that the single molecule is also trying to achieve the lowest possible potential energy. Therefore, knowing that potential energy can be expressed as the folling equation: potential energy = mass X force X height and knowing that the "end" of the stream is lower than the "beginning" of the stream you can see that the potential energy would be lower at the "end" since the mass of the one water molecule is equal at any point in the stream and force (expressed as gravity in this situation) is approximately the same at any point in the stream. This explains the physics of the streams flow.



:( :( :( :( :( If you say so. !!! I understand what your saying... I think... You must have taken chemistry and advanced science...


I'm just joking with you... Good answer...

[LabRat38]

Pink Floyd, I do have a degree in chemistry and also studied quite a bit of physics.

[Redrum_69]

Pinkfloyd....

Allow me to reverberate some past reps to maybe clear up your question.


Your mom is like a river....she lets anyone who can "swim" dive in, she doesnt post signs about being shallow, anyone who does dive in has to be hosed off and given penicillen/tetnus shots, and strangers throw junk in her at all hours of the night.


Your mom's pinooch reminds me of a fresh cowpie with a wagon track down the middle of it.

[PinkFloyd]

Pink Floyd, I do have a degree in chemistry and also studied quite a bit of physics.


I'm glad theres a few of us on here that know more than just sports !!! :thumb:

[PinkFloyd]

Pinkfloyd....

Allow me to reverberate some past reps to maybe clear up your question.


Your mom is like a river....she lets anyone who can "swim" dive in, she doesnt post signs about being shallow, anyone who does dive in has to be hosed off and given penicillen/tetnus shots, and strangers throw junk in her at all hours of the night.


Your mom's pinooch reminds me of a fresh cowpie with a wagon track down the middle of it.


Gee -- I think someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed.... And their bed is against the wall....

[Que Card QB]

Because if you put your bong down beside the stream--on the bank--you'll see that one side of bong-water (at the peak of the meniscus of course) is higer than the other...gawd.

[Braincase]

Top is level... bottom of it ain't.

Gravity, homey, gravity.

[KC-TBB]

Thank you all, I feel much smarter for having read this very insitefull information...but I thought everyone knew that sh_t don't run uphill!

[Dark Horse]

[QUOTE=LabRat38]First off, the total stream as stated before is not completely level, almost nothing in nature is completely level. QUOTE]

And all this time I thought it was my carpentry skills that sucked. :hmmm:

[DanT]

Here's the teaser and link for an interesting story about the bidirectional flow of the Chicago River:


The River Under the River

In 1900, engineers reversed the flow of the Chicago River to prevent wastewater from polluting Lake Michigan and the city's drinking supply. The feat was hailed as one of the seven engineering wonders of the United States. Nearly 100 years later, measurements revealed mysterious currents flowing toward the lake, deep below the river's surface. Was the river reclaiming its historical path?

http://cee.uiuc.edu/alumni/newsletter/p10_river.aspx

[plbrdude]

question : do not all rivers and streams flow toward the equator. meanin in the southern hemisphere they have a south to north flow direction?

[Bwana]

Because it can. :)

[Adept Havelock]

What happens if you live RIGHT ON the divide ???

Then you are likely spending a lot of time with John Belushi and Blair Brown.

[Que Card QB]

question : do not all rivers and streams flow toward the equator. meanin in the southern hemisphere they have a south to north flow direction?Um...I think you're confusing clockwise/counterclockwise (which is clockwise upside down, or on the other side of the equator), with North and South.
Everything flows from high to low because of gravity. From Colorado to the Gulf of Mexico or Utah to the Pacific. If you happen to be in Mo., you're still around 800-1,000 feet above sea level. Streams and rivers can flow any direction but ultimately, they end up in the oceans.

[Que Card QB]

Why did I ever wonder where in world, the rest of the NFL got their stereotypical ideas about us?

[Baby Lee]

Then you are likely spending a lot of time with John Belushi and Blair Brown.
That eagle freak!!

[Luke]

If it didn't flow one way or the other, wouldn't it be depending on it's size a pond or lake?
Or an ocean? Or a puddle?
I get so confused sometimes, I think I have a concussion. :banghead:

[ChiefaRoo]

The Rocky mountains to the Mountains in the East are a giant watershed with the Mississippi River at the bottom.

[Rain Man]

What happens if you live RIGHT ON the divide ???

Then the water's frozen and doesn't move at all.

[Archie F. Swin]

Walking across west Texas in July, you'd think someone forgot to pay the river bill

[boogblaster]

Pink water is hardly ever level..if more water is standing in one spot it is because its a deeper hole there..that hole of water can run for miles..plus springs can feed some holes that are lower than the ones above..plus water is always moving a little from under-tow.....

[JohninGpt]

question : do not all rivers and streams flow toward the equator. meanin in the southern hemisphere they have a south to north flow direction?
Nope, the Nile flows to the North and it's mouth and I believe most of the river is in the Northern Hemisphere.