BRAINDUMP
Amazing answers to your curious questions
Niagara Falls is comprised of two major sections, separated by Goat Island. They are exceptionally wide, and due to this they have approximately 1,833.33 cubic metres of water passing over the edge per second.
Lynn Erwood
Did you know?
The falls were formed at the end of the last ice age
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How much force is generated by Niagara Falls?
To find out how much force this generates, we can use force = mass x acceleration
The mass of one cubic metre of water is roughly 1,000 kilograms
To find the mass: 1,000 x 1,833.33 = 1,833,333.330 kilograms
F = ma
a = 9.81 metres per second squared
Therefore, the force which this water exerts is 1,833,333.330 x 9.81 = 17,985,000 newtons every second. It must be noted that this is the force which would be experienced if all of this force could be concentrated on an infinitesimal point. It’s not the force you would experience per second if you stood under Niagara Falls, as you would only represent a tiny area of that which the water is hitting.
IF FREEZING SOMETHING CAUSES IT TO LOSE ENERGY, WHY DOES ICE EXPAND AND HAVE THE ENERGY TO BURST PIPES?
Sacha Houle
Water is different to most other substances as upon turning into ice its volume expands by roughly nine per cent, causing it to become less dense. This is due to the nature of the bonds between molecules and their shape.
Upon changing state, a substance needs to absorb or release a certain amount of energy to undergo a phase transition. For a solid turning into a liquid, this energy is needed to break the bonds in the solid, and therefore needs to be absorbed by the system. For a liquid turning into a solid, this energy is released as the bonds form.
For one kilogram of water at freezing point to change into ice, it must give off 333.55 kilojoules to its surroundings just to undergo the phase transition. This large amount of energy is normally given off as heat, which means it gives the molecules in the atmosphere more kinetic energy. However, if water is contained in a steel pipe at freezing point, the energy given off will be passed onto the molecules and bonds in the pipe, potentially causing the pipe to burst.