A bit of fun.

[Johnboy]

It was said that 2.5" of rain fell on a Devon village on Monday.
How much water did fall on an acre at that rate of fall.
Answer in gallons.
JB.

[oldherbaceous]

Evening Johnboy, i thought my maths were pretty good, but i've had four goes at this and come up with slightly different answers each time.

So i'm going with, 2034959 gallons, but i might be causing drought or flood.

[FelixLeiter]

I calculate it as 69,385 gallons. This is based on the figure I got from this page multiplied by 2.5. Unfortunately this is US gallons, which are smaller than ours.

[Geoff]

1 acre = 6,272,640 square inches (4,840 sq yards x 9 x 144).

Therefore 2.5" rainfall yields 15,681,600 cubic inches of water.

1 cubic inch = 0.00360464866 Imperial gallons.

Therefore rainfall equals 56,526.658426656 imperial gallons (the only bit of empire we have left).

If it took you 10 seconds to fill and empty a one gallon bucket it would take you just short of a week to bail out.

[Johnboy]

Hi Geoff,
I calculate 43560x144 = one acre in square inches x 2.5" = cubic inches
One gallon equals 277.44 cubic inches divide the product and I make the answer 56522.49135 Gallons. I will not quibble over the answer.
I find the answer, whatever it truly is, absolutely astounding which is why I posed the question. We should never run short of water in this country but by poor planning and the not in my back yard merchants we have insufficient reservoirs to house this wonderful commodity.
As soon as a reservoir is planned there is always somebody who will set up a committee to fight against it. Why do the British always shoot themselves in the foot!
JB.

[Geoff]

I'm a member of a local history group and coming up we have "Winter Talk 2 : The 1917 plans to flood Hindburndale and Roeburndale: Botton water for Bolton?" (I just copied and pasted that before I spotted the strange English). As I live above the River Hindburn it will be interesting to see how deep the proposal was. As it is we just have the massive pipe from Haweswater to Manchester going through.
The talk after it might be interesting too "Earth Closets and Oil Lamps: Home life in Tatham before the 1960s" - they got electricity here in 1960.

[FelixLeiter]

Therefore rainfall equals 56,526.658426656 imperial gallons (the only bit of empire we have left).

Personally I find us, and especially the Americans, clinging on to avoirdupois weights and measures depressing. It's no wonder NASA can no longer put anyone into orbit. I bought some 4" x 2" timber the other day which was sold in 2.4 metre lengths.

It is an astounding quantity of water to fall from the sky in a day, though. How did it stay up there in the first place? But this is only sufficient to fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool (the media's favourite yardstick) to about 10% full. (The pool is approximately 600,000 gallons: approximate because they vary in depth.) It doesn't seem quite so much, looking at this way. Enough to settle the dust, that's for sure.

[Kleftiwallah]

As a gardener out in Gibraltar, I used to listen to the daily quizz on B.F.B.S. One question was, "If a tap drips once a second, how much water would be wasted in 24 hours?" I called in and asked if it was the hot water tap or cold ! Hot water has less surface tension so the drips would leave the tap more quickly and be smaller ! That question was not answered ! ! !

Do you think that this regeneration of the canals is the governments way of getting water from the soggy north to the wimpy south of our gray and pleasant land ? Cheers, Tony.

[Colin_M]

What an interesting set of facts.

With a bit of imagination, it should be possible to build resovoirs that can also be civic amenities & used for sailing, fishing etc. I'm very lucky to live near Bristol & have worked with Bristol Water in the past. They have several lakes & reservoirs south of the city that are used like this.

Further North, they also draw water from the Sharpness Canal. With suitable treatment, the water quality is fine and again this provides a wonderful place for boats, walks etc etc.

[Primrose]

I'm all for building more resevoirs & lakes. Not only will it encourage wildlife and the storage of water, it also means that some future developer won't be able to build and concrete all over that particular piece of land in the future. But I do think we need some long term thought & strategy on how all that surplus rainfall in the north of the country can be piped down southwards where there regularly seem to be shortages.

[PLUMPUDDING]

I agree Primrose, if we let them have a bit more water down South they won't be encouraged to move up here!!!

[Shallot Man]

Whats against transporting the water from north to south using the canals.

[Geoff]

I was thinking more of a roof and a gutter. Storage could be in a five mile wide ditch running through Watford.

[Westi]

Yes please - I'd like some more water!

Westi

[Marigold]

Yes please - I'd like some more water!

Westi

Have some of ours here in West Cork.. been deluging all day and still more to come... I know; this is what makes Ireland green..

Everywhere is waterlogged. Most of the cattle are in for the winter early this year.