Posted on 07/03/2002 11:39:30 PM PDT by Mike Darancette
As it turns out, God really is in the details.
In 1994, David Schmidt, a young Ph.D. candidate in engineering at the University of Wisconsin, was asked by his examiners to explain why thin shower curtains "suck in" whenever the water is turned on.
The solution to the riddle, like Fermat's last theorem, proved remarkably elusive. According to one theory, "curtain suck" is the product of the Bernoulli principle, which holds that pressure drops as air, water and other fluids accelerate, leading to lift. (This same principle explains how planes fly.) Yet another theory - the bouyancy theory - holds that curtain suck is the result of a disequilibrium between the hot air inside the shower space and the cold air without, which pushes in the shower curtain. But this theory fails to account for the persistence of curtain suck when the shower is run cold.
Intrigued, Schmidt, now at the University of Massachusetts, pressed ahead with the investigation. He designed a $28,000 piece of software that allowed him to model the flow of air and water within a simulated image of his mother-in-law's bathtub. He then filled the "tub" with 50,000 tetrahedral cells, which can detect velocity and pressure. Following that, he turned on a virtual shower that flooded his virtual tub with four gallons of virtual water over a period of 30 seconds. Then he let his computer crunch the numbers.
Two weeks and 1.5 trillion calculations later, Schmidt had his answer. Aerodynamic drag causes water droplets to decelerate, transferring energy to the air and creating air currents akin to a tiny hurricane. Low pressure in the eye of that hurricane then tugs on the lower end of the shower curtain. Voila! It sucks in.
WELCOME TO the curious world of climate modeling. As Schmidt's experiment makes clear, simply to understand shifting climate patterns in the space of a bathtub is no small matter. Yet today, huge political controversies have been stirred on the basis of climate forecasts for the entire globe, stretching decades into the future. According to the Worldwatch Institute, in the 21st century "the climate battle may assume the kind of strategic importance that wars - both hot and cold - had during the 20th."
This is the crux of the issue.
The extrapolations and inferences of global disasters may be right on, but it takes a huge leap in junk science faith to assert this conclusion is fact.
Did we have a global mobilization to prevent Mt. St Helens from exploding? Makes as much sense.
And Mt. St Helens was a pinprick in comparison to the energy involved in "managing" global climate.
The arrogance of the people involved in protecting the world's population from natural processes which have had infinite variability for millions of years (with no help whatsoever from humans) is beyond belief.
Can you cay controlling twits?
"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their consciences." -- C. S. Lewis
The weatherman can hardly get todays weather right and these guys want you to believe they can predict the weather years away.
I believe there are problems that are man made. But it's due more to an elite having whole forests destroyed for quick profit,or dumping their hazradous waste in the ocean, or destructive mining, then it is a guy grilling in his back yard.
But it's the guy cooking in the back yard that gets stuck with the bill and the blame.
With education most all of the worlds problems could be solved, but we are not allowed to control that either.
It's all about power; always was, always will be.
Heads on pikes! ;^)
Thomas Sowell, in "The Vision of the Anoited" points out several situations where the left manufactured a "crisis" out of thin air to drum up support for their cause. For example, before the "war on poverty" the poor people were actually acheiving gradual improvement in their situation year over year. The democrats made this a crisis when left alone, the problem was solving itself.
Good point. I'd never even considered that possibility. I would be interested to see where these enviro-organizations funding comes from.
I love it.
That is a great book!
Actually, there is probably a higher risk of large numbers of people being killed by things falling from the sky than by the increase of man made CO2.
Possibly. I'd opt for a simplier explanation myself. The water rushing out of the shower head pushes the air down and under the shower curtain. Most people hang the curtain inside the tub to channel drippage. The air pushes the curtain in instead of sucks it in.
If that's true curtainsuck shouldn't be noticable with the curtain out side the tub. My curtain's too thick, but I notice a tiny bit of inward movement. When I hang it outside the tub I see none at all.
But, with a thick curtain, it's hard to tell. Maybe some out here with a thin nylon curtain would try it?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.