10 ms·
Solving a Mystery Behind the Deadly ‘Tsunami of Molasses’ of 1919
- PaulAJ 10y agoI will never describe sluggish software as "running like molasses" again.
- mhurron 10y agoAlways specify cold molasses, or molasses in winter.
- cauterized 10y agoYou do realize the event in question occurred during a Boston January?
- mhurron 10y agoThe molasses itself was fermenting raising its temperature significantly. It cooled and slowed very quickly when it was out of that environment.
- cauterized 10y agoIt was still molasses in winter. ;-)
- nickpsecurity 10y agoI was thinking: "You might mock the speed of someone moving through molasses but a wall of molasses moving at you is no joke."
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- semi-extrinsic 10y agoIt's all down to the Reynolds number, which relates viscosity ('sluggishness' of the fluid) n, length scale L and speed v. Re = v*L/n; if this number is low, stuff "happens slowly", if large, stuff "happens quickly". So if you scale things up, making L larger, you can get fluids that we usually think of as "slow" to act like they're "quick". Like magma: very sticky, but a big enough lava flow can outrun a car. <insert standard disclaimer about handwaving in above comment>
- daveguy 10y agoI wonder how large the pitch drop experiment would have to be before it produced continuous visible flow at room temperature. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pitch_drop_experiment https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pitch_drop_experiment
- semi-extrinsic 10y agoInteresting question. It depends of course on the combination of how restrictive the nozzle is (as compared to the width of the column above), and the height of the pitch above the nozzle. If you take the geometry of the pitch drop experiment as fixed, varying only the radius (of both nozzle and column), keeping the pitch height constant, I believe that problem can be solved. Will think about it.
- semi-extrinsic 10y agoTo clarify the question: do you mean that the flow is such that you can clearly see motion, or that the stream of pitch flowing down does not break up into droplets? (The latter depends also on surface tension, the former does not.)
- daveguy 10y agoI was thinking such that there is sufficient flow to see motion (say 1 mL/min). I think the boundary between droplets vs continuous flow is a more difficult problem.
- 10y ago
- tomjacobs 10y agoSomeone watched Drunk History last night.
- jahewson 10y agoFor those interested in this unusual event, the book Dark Tide: The Great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919 chronicles the run-up to the disaster and the enormous court case which followed, in which USIA attempted to blame Italian anarchists for the tank's destruction. The book also suggests that the behaviour of warm molasses was a likely factor, notably the effect of combining it with the cold molasses already in the tank. So this new research fits perfectly.
- failrate 10y agoWhy is it that causes of death like this are simultaneously ridiculous and horrifying? Is it my brain reacting to the horror accounting for the hilarity, or is it just that molasses seems so benign?
- LordFrith 10y agoOne of the issues of Murder Can Be Fun was on the great flood https://www.amazon.com/Murder-disasters-Boston-molasses-flood/dp/B0028GMM96 https://www.amazon.com/Murder-disasters-Boston-molasses-floo...