The Rain - John Dunn, Consultant, Ambertec, P.E., P.C., ambertec@ieee.org

We are so jaded that we tend to accept phrases like "the forces of nature" without even blinking an eye, but maybe it would be a good thing to blink now and then, at least a little.

Let's look at a very common and simple phenomenon, a rainfall of one inch over an open land area of one square mile.

We define a square of one mile on a side:                      1 mile on each side.

The one-mile square has sides measured in feet:          5,280 feet on each side.

The area of the square in square feet:                            27,878,400 square feet of area

Water depth of one inch expressed in feet:                     0.083333333 foot of depth

Water volume in cubic feet:                                           2,323,200 cubic feet of volume

Water density in pounds per cubic foot:                          64 pounds per cubic foot

Water weight in lbs.                                                       148,684,800 pounds

Water weight in mega-lbs.                                              148.6848 million pounds

A simple one inch rainfall over just one square mile weighs more than 148 million pounds and just think about how all of that weight was up in the sky just a little while before in the form of some nice fluffy white clouds that maybe you thought looked a little like a bunny.

Weather control, anyone?

Comments

[Roberto Mariani]

John, you know I respect you very much... but please, CONVERT yourself to a more user-friendly system of weights and measures.

The USA Government, back in 1988 (that's about 626 fortnight ago ;-)), stated that the IS is "the preferred system of weights and measures for U.S. trade and commerce" (and it should also be for scientific publications, where no other option fits better), but it looks like nothing is going to change.

Let's go with meters and grams:
- A square with 1 km sides has an area of 1'000'000 m^2 (no calculator needed)
- 1 cm of water is simply 0.01 m (no calculator needed)
- the total volume is therefore 10'000 m^3 (no calculator needed)
- so the total mass of water is exactly (that's almost distilled water, but for the pollutants it catched while falling) 10'000'000'000 g (no calculator needed).
- that is simply 10 Gg... quite impressive, isn't it? (And it was with a smaller area AND a smaller depth, anyway)

Oh, did I mention that I didn't need to use a calculator? ;-)

Roberto

[John Dunn]

Hi, Roberto.

I guess I'm just an old traditionalist. I still like furlongs and fortnights. ;)

John

[Mary Winch]

Hi John,

On lighter note here are some not too well known phrases of measurement:

Ratio of an igloo's circumference to its diameter = Eskimo Pi

2000 pounds of Chinese soup = Won ton

1 millionth of a mouthwash = 1 microscope

Time between slipping on a peel and smacking the pavement=1 bananosecond

Weight an evangelist carries with God = 1 billigram

Time it takes to sail 220 yards at 1 nautical mile per hour = Knot-furlong

365.25 days of drinking low-calorie beer because it's less filling = 1 lite
year

16.5 feet in the Twilight Zone = 1 Rod Serling

Half of a large intestine = 1 semicolon

1000 aches = 1 kilohurtz

Basic unit of laryngitis = 1 hoarsepower

Shortest distance between two jokes = A straight line.

453.6 graham crackers = 1 pound cake

1 million microphones = 1 megaphone

1 million bicycles = 2 megacycles

2000 mockingbirds = two kilomockingbirds (work on it....)

10 cards = 1 decacards

1 kilogram of falling figs = 1 Fig Newton

1000 cubic centimeters of wet socks = 1 literhosen

1 millionth of a fish = 1 microfiche

1 trillion pins = 1 terrapin

10 rations = 1 decoration

100 rations = 1 C-ration

2 monograms = 1 diagram

8 nickels = 2 paradigms

3 statute miles of intravenous surgical tubing at Yale University Hospital = 1 IV League

Mary.

[Roberto Mariani]

Ok ,I'll resign myself to it: you Americans have way too much creativity when it comes to measuring things... ;-)

I'll stick to my pretty boring 10-based metric system and keep staring with an astonished face at the impressive (and quite amusing) list provided by Mary, wondering if they are just all the figment of someone's imagination, or if someone on your side of the pond is really using them ;-))

Have a nice day,
Roberto