3 ms·
The Falkirk wheel is quite an immense structure, but each one of it's basins is only 80m long and 6.5m wide. It's moving 500 tonnes of weight each rotation (spl
by BuildTheRobots 3y ago
The Falkirk wheel is quite an immense structure, but each one of it's basins is only 80m long and 6.5m wide. It's moving 500 tonnes of weight each rotation (split between the two basins to keep it balanced).
To service the Panama Canal, you'd need basins 370m long and 50m wide. The new Panamax ships are apparently capable of carrying 120,000 tonnes of weight (no idea what they weigh themselves), but we're talking about swinging around half a millions tonnes of weight. My brain can't comprehend that... are there _any_ moving structures of that size in the world?
- nuc1e0n 3y agoIs getting the ship across the canal even necessary when we're talking about shipping containers? a Flotilla of smaller ships for just a few containers could be used in a continuous convoy.
- CableNinja 3y agoIf you consider the motion and weight, a large (very large) forge would fit in this category of 250000 to 1000000 in moving mass. Its definitely something we have in our grasp. Unfortunately, youd need not only multiple falkirk wheels, but wheels of varying size, and, there would be cases where a ship might have to wait a while, as theres no equally sized ship heading the other way. On the existing falkirk you dont have to deal with the weight differences because the average boat doesnt add much compared to the water to float it, not the case when its a shipping ship.
- aaronax 3y agoOn the Falkirk Wheel you don't have to deal with weight differences at all, regardless of the size of the ship. The ship displaces a weight of water equal to the weight of the ship. So when filled to the same level, a side with water and a side with ship+water will balance each other perfectly.