Posted on 06/18/2010 7:01:52 AM PDT by blam
China's Monster Three Gorges Dam Is About To Slow The Rotation Of The Earth
Cutler Cleveland, The Energy Watch
Jun. 18, 2010, 9:23 AM
The Myth: The filling of the reservoir behind Three Gorges Dam in China changed the rotation of the Earth.
The Evidence: Three Gorges Dam, China crosses the Yangtze River in Hubei province, China. It the worlds largest hydroelectric power station by total capacity, which will be 22,500 MW when completed. When the water level is maximum at 175 meters (574 ft) over sea level (91 meters (299 ft) above river level), the reservoir created by the dam is about 660 kilometers (410 mi) in length and 1.12 kilometers (0.70 mi) in width on average. The total surface area of the reservoir is 1045 square kilometers, and it will will flood a total area of 632 square kilometers, of land. The reservoir will contain about 39.3 cu km (9.43 cubic miles) of water. That water will weigh more than 39 trillion kilograms (42 billion tons).
A shift in a mass of that size would affect the rotation of the Earth due to a phenomena known as the moment of inertia, which is the inertia of a rigid rotating body with respect to its rotation. The moment of inertia of an object about a given axis describes how difficult it is to change its angular motion about that axis. The longer the distance of a mass to its axis of rotation, the slower it will spin. You may not know it, but you see examples of this in everyday life. For example, a figure skater attempting to spin faster will draw her arms tight to her bodies
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The Verdict: True.
This is a guest post from The Energy Watch.
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(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
That is a verifiable scientific truth as I have been able to conduct that same experiment and replicate your results.
Big deal. If you erect a flag pole in your backyard, it will increase the moment of inertia of the earth and slow its rotation. Same thing when you raise your hand. You get out of bed and stand straight up and you are slowing the earth’s rotation. So what’s a dam.
and can slow that spinning just by placing one foot on the floor :)
Why not a story on how Kirstie Alley’s weight gain caused days to become longer by 0.000000000000006 trillionth of a second?
China: cracks in the Three Gorges Dam, so 300,000 people can wave goodbye to their homes
The glaciers over North America and Asia only 20,000 years ago would dwarf that reservoir. They put 400 feet of water that is now in the oceans on top of the continents.
Well, we know how well Chinese engineering stands up in earthquakes. God, help the downstream Chinese.
Look for something to hit?
In fact, yes.
The tidal action has two effects:
Slows down the rotation of the Earth (longer days)
Speeds up the revolution of the moon around the Earth. I’m not sure if that means shorter months, though, because as the moon speeds up a bit it goes into a higher orbit.
Eventually, it will probably escape.
Thus, earth should naturally be speeding up all the time. (The figure skate is slowly pulling her arms in.)
This giant dam, that takes water from a lower elevation and keeps it at a higher elevation should just offset a portion of this.
That reminds of a joke.
Q. How many Kennedys does it take to screw in a light bulb?
A. Two. One to hold the bulb and one to drink until the room spins.
Truth.
You have to keep track of setup and hold times when playing games with electronics.
Other than that, my assault kitten would prefer her tuna earlier...
But it doens’t have to be just Bourbon - conducted the same test on Thursday night with 2 bottles of pretty good Merlot - the effect is still measurable and I’m not feeling all that well.
Mel
In the Seattle/Tacoma area where I am, down to a bit south of Portland, Or., the estimates are that the glaciers were about a mile thick.
That’s part of the reason I don’t get all bent about salmon being “exterminated” from the local rivers. 13K years ago, there weren’t even any rivers!!
I know and I have changed my ways!
I am a wind energy advocate and was dissed by an enviroweirdo! He said that the windmills would add drag to the earths rotation and slow down the earth's spin.
Maybe we need to leave the Horizon Oil in the gulf. This slipperiness will offset the Chinese drag!
Maybe this is Obumble's plan to win another Nobel Fleece Prize!
“60 nanoseconds is a long time for some people..........”
I agree. Obama, for instance, can come up with a million evil things to do in just half the time....
“WHAT AM I GOING TO DO WITH ALL THIS SPARE TIME???!?”
You could sleep in or take a nap....:)
A risetime of 60 nanoseconds would be terribly slow in my world............
22 milliseconds a year...
I’m happy as a clam. My tomatoes will get bigger due to longer days and sunlight.
Now, with the one extra hour (daylight savings) the democrats gave us plus the extra daylight that the Chinese gave us, all crops should grow better and there will be no food shortages throughout the world. It’s simply wonderful.
How can life get any better. Due to the government we get extra sunlight and Obama money. The “One” has certainly been a savior to humanity along with his friends, the Chinks.
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