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> massive siphons that literally pull the water over mountain ranges Where's the best place to start reading more about this?
by tricolon 11y ago
> massive siphons that literally pull the water over mountain ranges
Where's the best place to start reading more about this?
- markbnj 11y agoI don't know if I could tell you the best place, but this seems like a good start: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_State_Water_Project https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_State_Water_Project I became interested while living in LA twenty or so years ago. The whole system represents a monumental engineering achievement, whatever its political, ecological, social, etc., implications. Edit: that page doesn't discuss siphons much, as they are part of the aqueduct components of the system, but reading through it my twenty year-old impressions seem off. Siphons do play a big role in getting water over some heights, but there is a lot of pumping too. On the other hand they generate power from the flow at several places, so who knows how it all balances out?
- URSpider94 11y agoIt balances out poorly, and that's the author's point. Quite a bit of energy is wasted in water free-flowing downhill (in the sense that it can not be recovered).