The "ask a silly question, get a sensible answer" thread

Curio said:
Tom & Blood - excellent stuff. That's what I'm looking for.

The rest of you.....did you not read the words "silly hypothetical"? :D Of course there are all sorts of problems with the question......you're just supposed to ignore them as the above two posters did :)

Gambisk.....that's not getting into the spirit of things :(

Come on GD!
Click to expand...

Woohoo what do we win?
 
bloodiedathame said:
Yes, put the plug at the deepest part of the ocean, calculate the amount of water above to get your pressure, then calculate the flow rate which will be a sexy equation, plug that into our gallons and that'd give an idea.
Click to expand...

Don't forget to adjust the flow rate as the water level reduces!
 
bloodiedathame said:
Yes, put the plug at the deepest part of the ocean, calculate the amount of water above to get your pressure, then calculate the flow rate which will be a sexy equation, plug that into our gallons and that'd give an idea.
Click to expand...
Ah, but then the pressure will constantly decrease until at the end it's just a tiny trickle :p

/edit/ Bah. Beaten. Refresh the thread before posting, man!
 
Suarez you need to start thinking about what you're posting otherwise you'll be getting more holidays.
 
The aim of this thread was to present silly questions that would require some level of maths, science, research, etc work to formulate an answer, and hopefully also lead to some discussion (or raging fights) on who's method/answer was the most accurate. Lofty goals, to be sure....especially for GD :) Some of you seem to be getting it though.....I remain hopeful!
 
Why does a USB 2.0 never go into the slot after turning the thing around 2 times? 3rd dimension yo.

How much does an iceberg actually displace water? Perhaps the oceans won't rise as much as people think.
 
the flow rate would not be constant as the height of the remaining water above the sea bed changes. You'd need to find the flow rate as a function of the pressure at the "plug hole", and then calculate the pressure as a function of the height of the water, which is given by:

P_plug = P_0 + p*g*h

where P_plug is the pressure at the plug hole
P_0 is the atmospheric pressure
p is the density of water
h is the height of the water
g is the acceleration due to mavity.

P_0 would also change as the ocean drains though, as we're talking about a significant volume, so you'd also need to find this as a function of height if you wanted to be more accurate.

edit: you should be able to use bernoulli's equation to find the flow speed as a function of pressure. You can then change the speed into a rate by using the cross sectional area of the plug hole.
 
Last edited:
First you need to define where you are placing the plug hole, as that determines the amount of water that will be drained.

Depending on the depth of the plug hole, there will be a different amount of undrained water.

water_zpsf64e06ed.png


Once the position of the plug hole is determined, you could then start to calculate the pressure as a function of water height above the plug hole, and the amount of water linked by water tension as a function of time.

Pretty darn complicated tbh
 
jaybee said:
I've always wondered if it was possible to die from fart inhalation.
Click to expand...

The oxygen content of farts can be very low (see here), so technically yes, if you filled a sealed room with farts and put someone in it they would die.
 
ilcp said:
http://what-if.xkcd.com/41/ - US coast moving west, does this mean it will crash/touch Japan/Australia in x amount of years?
Click to expand...

Yes.

Also, Australia used to be part of Antarctica and is still moving north, so it will eventually crash into South East Asia.

Judgeneo said:
First you need to define where you are placing the plug hole, as that determines the amount of water that will be drained.

Depending on the depth of the plug hole, there will be a different amount of undrained water.

water_zpsf64e06ed.png


Once the position of the plug hole is determined, you could then start to calculate the pressure as a function of water height above the plug hole, and the amount of water linked by water tension as a function of time.

Pretty darn complicated tbh
Click to expand...

What if all of the pacific sea water was removed from the ocean and stored in a massive bath tub?
 
The world is full of stupid questions seeking good answers. Good questions getting stupid answers are fewer, but definitely still out there.

Good questions getting good answers are unlikely to be found on OcUK's GD.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom