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

[John Dunn]

If only to prove your point, Roberto, please see:

http://licn.typepad.com/my_weblog/2009/04/speed-metrology-and-public-safety-by-john-dunn-ambertec-pe-pc.html

All the best!

John

[Roberto Mariani]

I don't know how I managed to miss it...

Let's go with the Angstrom per year, just to make things even more thrilling.

And how about this? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_humorous_units_of_measurement

OT: is there a way to subscribe to a specific discussion on your blog? Just as it can be done on LI, I mean.

[Mark]

Um, sliding decimal points around to demonstrate the good features of the metric system is all well and good but the real world does not fall one nice round metric boundaries.
The original problem stated the parameters to be:
1609 meters on a side,
0.0254 meters deep
Please solve the stated problem - you may have to use a calculator instead of just sliding the decimal point around.
I will take the answer in the more useful form of metric tons.