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Would the tunnel into lake powell 2000ft below not fill it up still? Is it not possible to fill a half full bucket with a hose at the bottom of the bucket? With
by _8j50 4y ago
Would the tunnel into lake powell 2000ft below not fill it up still? Is it not possible to fill a half full bucket with a hose at the bottom of the bucket? With storm drainage tunnels , they still fill up the bigger tunnels and reservoirs even though the tunnel terminates under water. What physics thingy am I missing?
- pzone 4y agoImagine a hose in the bottom of a bucket, but the opening to the hose is lowered below the bucket. The flow would go in the wrong direction. So without the elevation step, this project would drain the lake.
- eesmith 4y agoThe physics thingy you're missing is "potential energy." To raise a mass m a height h given the gravity g you need mgh energy. The minimum energy needed to raise 1 kg 1000 meters given gravity of 10 m/s/s gravity = 10,000 Joules. It doesn't matter if you raise the water to the top to pour it in at the surface, or send pressurized water out of vents at the bottom of the lake. With the latter, sure, you're putting the water lower down, but that water is pushing other water up and out of the way, so the end result is the same - if you add more water, the water level goes up.