Hypothetical: How would the world be different if...

[Rain Man]

...if raindrops were really, really big? I'm talking the size of a 55-gallon barrel.

The total volume of water in rain would be the same, but instead of a bunch of little drops we had a smaller number of barrel drops?

Let us ponder this on a cloudy Wednesday.

[The Franchise]

Umm.....the windshield repair business would be booming.

[RJ]

For starters, we would all live underground.

[OnTheWarpath15]

Umm.....the windshield repair business would be booming.

And the umbrella business would not.

[Bane]

There would be a lot fewer Donkhole fans!!!!!
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[Rain Man]

Yeah, I was thinking that windows wouldn't exist. Or they'd have some sort of really big shield over them.

Would the Pacific Northwest be uninhabitable?

And I'm trying to figure out what happens when a person gets hit by a rainbarreldrop. Does it kill you? Injure you? Do you just get really wet and passersby laugh because there aren't enough rainbarreldrops to get everyone wet?

[L.A. Chieffan]

if the water was shaped as a perfect drop completely contained within itself it would probably kill or severely harm you

[RJ]

Trust me, those things are deadly. We would live underground and only surface on cloudless days. There would be warning sirens for cloud sightings.

Let us thank God, who in His infinite wisdom gave us lots of tiny raindrops instead of just a few gargantuan ones.

[RippedmyFlesh]

if the water was shaped as a perfect drop completely contained within itself it would probably kill or severely harm you
something that big falling from a cloud? splat game over

[morphius]

I'm not even sure that there would be life on land and if any plants were able to survive they would have to be low to the ground as that kind of weight would shred off limbs and leaves.

[Kylo Ren]

We would have a better understanding of what it was like to be shelled by the Germans in the Ardennes forest during the Battle of the Bulge. 55 gallons of water would hit like bombs!

[Rain Man]

Maybe we could live above ground, but in areas with heavy trees. You'd think over time that the trees would get strong, and maybe they'd break up the rainbarreldrops. In fact, maybe the Pacific Northwest would be more heavily settled for that reason, and the Great Plains would be uninhabitable. You wouldn't want to risk death in a thunderstorm with no big trees around.

[seclark]

Burt Bacharach probably would have had slightly different lyrics in "Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head", i'm guessing.
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[L.A. Chieffan]

Maybe we could live above ground, but in areas with heavy trees. You'd think over time that the trees would get strong, and maybe they'd break up the rainbarreldrops. In fact, maybe the Pacific Northwest would be more heavily settled for that reason, and the Great Plains would be uninhabitable. You wouldn't want to risk death in a thunderstorm with no big trees around.

Honestly the Americas may still have been unsettled from Europeans. Whos going to cross the Atlantic if one raindrop will destroy your ship?

[Coogs]

The entire population of the world would probably be crowded into the metropolis of Olathe.

[Coogs]

"Olathe" just say'n...

:doh!:

[RJ]

I like Olatha better. It sounds all midieval and stuff.

[ChiefJustice]

Giant metal collanders would have to be constructed over major cities.

Outside of these zones...I can see a Mad Max type of world.

Cars made of giant sponges....others encased in layers of bubble wrap.

The true road warriors in this scenario...are the motorcycle riding mutant dolphins with nothing to lose.

Other than that,I don't don't see it being that much different.

[RJ]

This scene never gets made.


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[seclark]

This scene never gets made.


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maybe, "screaming in the rain"
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[Rain Man]

Honestly the Americas may still have been unsettled from Europeans. Whos going to cross the Atlantic if one raindrop will destroy your ship?

Ooh, that's a good point. We definitely wouldn't have had sailing ships.


What about snow? If raindrops are that big would we have big snowflakes that settle down upon delighted children like fluffy kisses from Mother Nature, or would they be big scythes of ice crystal slicing sledders in half like King Solomon in a parka?

[JohninGpt]

God, please do not let it hail.

[HC_Chief]

At 440lbs per drop, I'd say the world would be MUCH different.

[RJ]

April showers bring,

Death, destruction and earthquakes.

[seclark]

would Rain Man still use the nic, "Rain Man"?
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[ChiefJustice]

would Rain Man still use the nic, "Rain Man"?
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If so...the general public would have him crucified after the 2nd drop

[RJ]

He could still go by Rain Man, but he would have a radically different on line persona. He would probably be banned frequently.

[BY1401]

I'm having a hard time imagining what the atmospheric conditions would have to be like in order for this to happen.

[Sofa King]

I'm not even sure that there would be life on land and if any plants were able to survive they would have to be low to the ground as that kind of weight would shred off limbs and leaves.

fungus and mold would still be ok... it grows very quickly and could always come back between rain droppings...

[JohninGpt]

I think humans would have eventually adapted to it, much as ants can handle the rain we have now. Maybe we would have developed super strength.

[BigMeatballDave]

The Roofing business would be extremely lucrative.

[T-post Tom]

I think I actually experienced that on the island of Kauai.

[Otter]

Clouds would be 100x the size they are now and we would live above ground but all our houses would be shaped in a cylindrical cone

http://www.icteachers.co.uk/children/sats/images/3d_cone.gif

and they would have to be up on stilts like beach houses to allow the massive and sudden water flow back to its channels.

Umbrellas wouldn't exist and the movie "Singing in the Rain" would be about a cult leader leading his group to mass suicide.

[Jilly]

I bet ponchos and galoshes would look different.

[Braincase]

Rainforests would serve as death row.

[googlegoogle]

Mythbusters.

[Demonpenz]

i would like to think that the water would rip the shirt off a petete blond next to me and splash giving me just enough jube to fuck myself and not just move my hand up and down my shaft like making a hole with my hand and fucking it

[Ultra Peanut]

and would things be different if it rained DYNAMITE instead of WATER?

[BY1401]

and would things be different if it rained DYNAMITE instead of WATER?

Well, the dynamite wouldn't run off like water does, so we'd have to do a lot of shoveling.

[Demonpenz]

U.P. always asks explosive questions

[Earthling]

Laws of physics, as we know them, would be altered, as well as our evolutionary path. I suspect we would have large, pointy, protruding, bone-horn thingys, on our heads that could help "spear" the deadly rain-drops and disperse their effect.

[Simplex3]

Yeah, I was thinking that windows wouldn't exist. Or they'd have some sort of really big shield over them.

Would the Pacific Northwest be uninhabitable?

And I'm trying to figure out what happens when a person gets hit by a rainbarreldrop. Does it kill you? Injure you? Do you just get really wet and passersby laugh because there aren't enough rainbarreldrops to get everyone wet?

You would almost always get dead if that quantity of water would stay in one drop over that distance. That's just over 450lbs traveling at probably well over 200mph.

[tonyetony]

I'm sure there would be some idiot meteorologist breaking in during the game and tracking every raindrop by radar like they do now.

[Rain Man]

Laws of physics, as we know them, would be altered, as well as our evolutionary path. I suspect we would have large, pointy, protruding, bone-horn thingys, on our heads that could help "spear" the deadly rain-drops and disperse their effect.

That's a really good point (no pun intended). And if they were long enough and pointy enough, then we wouldn't be harmed at all by the rainbarreldrop. Social status might then be determined by headpoint length, under the reproductive principal that a longer headpoint would mean a greater likelihood of survival.

As a side effect of that electrical wires would be located much higher. Or maybe they'd be underground to start with since they themselves wouldn't survive a direct hit.

[CosmicPal]

If that were to occur, then there would likely be no land mass anywhere on the planet. Even the deserts would be underwater because the size of those raindrops would raise the levels of every ocean, lake, river, creek, and back-yard hot tub to levels that would most certainly sink the world in water.

[RJ]

Perhaps our skulls would be the strength of cast iron.

Which might be convenient for frying chicken.

[Buck]

There would be a lot of erosion.

[RJ]

That's a really good point (no pun intended). And if they were long enough and pointy enough, then we wouldn't be harmed at all by the rainbarreldrop. Social status might then be determined by headpoint length, under the reproductive principal that a longer headpoint would mean a greater likelihood of survival.

As a side effect of that electrical wires would be located much higher. Or maybe they'd be underground to start with since they themselves wouldn't survive a direct hit.


Perhaps guys like me with a cone shaped penis would be considered more desirable by women.

I mean, assuming we were better looking and more socially adept.

[Rain Man]

Perhaps guys like me with a cone shaped penis would be considered more desirable by women.

I mean, assuming we were better looking and more socially adept.



I think that would only protect you from the rain while you were lying down, though, so I'm not sure it would have the same value as a headcone.

[RJ]

I think that would only protect you from the rain while you were lying down, though, so I'm not sure it would have the same value as a headcone.

True, but perhaps the cone shape itself would be sexually attractive. Maybe a sign of masculinity. The Cone Of Manhood. Chicks dig protection. Or so I hear.