[NBLUG/talk] Totally OT, a physics puzzle...

Cal Herrmann calz at eskimo.com
Thu Jan 8 14:51:02 PST 2004


Water has inertia.  It may not be solid, but every molecule is inclined to 
continue in the direction of the flow, the momentum (mass times velocity) it 
has will transfer to something in the way.
Practical example from my home, after the recent storms:  there is a 
(normally) tiny stream behind my house, with a rather sharp bend in it.  A 
concrete wall was put in to keep the hillside from eroding.
About 10 feet of the concrete wall has been blown aside by the fast run of 
the stream about a week ago!
Cal

On Thursday 08 January 2004 02:25 pm, you wrote:
> So, sitting in a "Cisco Academy" class & looking at the semi-famous
> Cisco poster (of a breaker cresting over the GG Bridge), the student
> next to me & I disagreed about whether or not the bridge would survive
> such a wave.
>
> One of us feels that the wave is so large & that fluid dynamics demands
> that such a large wave will be moving so fast, that it'll take down the
> bridge.
>
> The other points out that it's *only* water, & will flow freely, & the
> bridge *is* built to flex; that it'll survive.
>
> Can anyone provide the physics to show why either (or both) of us are
> right, or wrong?
>
> - Steve S.
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