Posted on 08/12/2015 2:27:10 PM PDT by Minutemen
Desperate to preserve its water supply amid a four-year drought, Los Angeles is turning a reservoir into a ball pit. It may not seem like the most scientific approach, but officials say the shade balls will protect valuable H2O in the City of Angels.
Bringing new meaning to the term throwing shade, authorities claim the black, plastic balls will preserve the Van Normal reservoirs water supply in several ways. (excerpt)see all at link:https://www.rt.com/usa/312219-shade-balls-california-drought/
(Excerpt) Read more at rt.com ...
“The name of the reservoir should be Van Norman reservoir.”
Yes, nothing is normal in LA.
Remember when they raised that sunken ship from the Suez Canal by pumping the holds full of ping-pong balls?
Yes they will, but they will also increase the surface area of the water by capillary attraction and the meniscus at and around every ball. The black color will cause greater heating and surface evaporation of what is now a greater surface area.
Bird sh*t is fertilizer.
BINGO!!!
Oh, can’t wit for the unintended consequences of this little escapade
“If California would send the illegals home to Mexico, “
We don’t have the power to do that.
We passed Prop 187 back in 1994 to try to do something to reverse the illegal alien invasion, but we were beaten back by an unholy alliance of Democrats and Mexico-First Republicans- including the then Governor of Texas, GW Bush.
As for the rain cycle, we live in a coastal desert in SoCal. Letting water evaporate won’t benefit us one iota.
Nice headline, but you might wanna check that number again.
“The larger added surface area of the balls will make evaporation worse....”
That’s what I said in an earlier thread. Not only does the area increase but the temperature of the black ball’s will be higher than the surface water. But what do I know I’m just an old oil field hand, OK Petroleum Engineer but I’m still old.
No power and living in a coastal desert? I would move.
“The larger added surface area of the balls will make evaporation worse....”
That’s what I said in an earlier thread. Not only does the area increase but the temperature of the black ball’s will be higher than the surface water. But what do I know I’m just an old oil field hand, OK Petroleum Engineer but I’m still old.
...and the birds will probably not be landing / floating / relieving themselves in the water.
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I, for one, welcome our new Cybernetic Overlords /. | ||
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The balls have been in use since 2008 so there’s been plenty of time to see if those factors are greater than the loss from having the sun directly hit the water surface.
The mass of water acts as a heat sink and the balls won’t heat appreciably.
Capillarity- the balls are made of polyethylene, see below:
“In some liquid-solid systems, e.g., mercury and glass or water and polyethylene plastic, the liquid does not wet the solid, and its surface is depressed where it contacts the solid.”
http://www.infoplease.com/encyclopedia/science/capillarity.html
I’d move but I have obligations that keep me here.
That was my first thought after reading the first paragraph.
Black Balls Matter???
No, I don’t actually remember that -— but it sounds, ah, very elevating :o)
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