Science: Everything explained by PV=nRT, F=ma=Gm(1)•m(2)/r^2

[St. Clown]

A practical demonstration on earth sciences regarding droughts and then rain.

https://twitter.com/fasc1nate/status...ECYq1s1BFyVAGw

[Kepler]

A practical demonstration on earth sciences regarding droughts and then rain.

https://twitter.com/fasc1nate/status...ECYq1s1BFyVAGw

That is so ****ing counterintuitive.

[dxmnkd316]

That is so ****ing counterintuitive.

Tell that to my lawn. If I want a good soaking rain (single storm, not an all-day rain) to actually matter, I need to pre-wet the lawn thanks to the concrete, errrr, I mean clay. In fact, UMN extension actually recommends prewetting lawns on slopes with high clay content.

[Kepler]

I believe it, trust me -- I've seen flashfloods in desert. It just makes no intuitive sense to me at all. I would think it was about saturation. I fully realize (well, duh) that it isn't.

Kepler don't think it be like that, but it do.

[MichVandal]

A practical demonstration on earth sciences regarding droughts and then rain.

https://twitter.com/fasc1nate/status...ECYq1s1BFyVAGw

Flash floods in the desert are real, sure. Deserts are not just big piles of sand- most are hard packed ground. Really hard packed ground.

But that example is very flawed. Looking at the bubbles, the air is leaking in via the grass. The grass is thicker and provides more gaps between the ground and the cup on the wet land. And the super dry- the grass is easily compressed to seal off.

Completely saturated ground isn't a good way to absorb water- which is what is implied by that experiment- it's as likely to flood as the dry, hard ground is- as there's no place for the groundwater to go. We've had more than one flood in SE MI with very wet ground.

The other thing people need to see in that is to make sure your grass has plenty of humus to work with. That way when it is really dry, the water has a place to go to get started before just running off.

edit- a better way to show that is to shave the grass down to the ground, and make sure there are roots to provide an air path. And even then, the difference between super dry ground that has some kind of grass (like the prairies) and just as dry desert will be drastically different, since the ground cover slows the water down and should help it go down. Deserts have so little ground cover, relatively, that it's just not able to absorb water.

[aparch]

A practical demonstration on earth sciences regarding droughts and then rain.

https://twitter.com/fasc1nate/status...ECYq1s1BFyVAGw

Yep. A great representation of the phenomenon.

[aparch]

But that example is very flawed. Looking at the bubbles, the air is leaking in via the grass. The grass is thicker and provides more gaps between the ground and the cup on the wet land. And the super dry- the grass is easily compressed to seal off.

It also depends on the makeup of the soil. DX is exactly right because clay has an elasticity to it and shrinks when dry. Moistening it allows it to expand, which then helps it take on more water versus going from dry->wet. It doesnt have time to moisten in a flash flood situation and most of the clay stays dry.

(Somewhere DGF is Googling "'Michael Scott That's What She Said' dot JPG.")

Grass grows best on black dirt which has some organics in it, some clay, and other soil/stones. The organics create air voids as they decompose, allowing for gaps foe water to traverse or store.

The regulation of soil moisture is why farmers install field tile to ensure that there isn't an oversaturation of the soil, especially from subsurface water.

[dxmnkd316]

Sandy loam. Fancy way of saying black soil, plus clay, plus sand is best.

[Kepler]

Sandy loam

Sounds like a 60s British pop singer.

[MissThundercat]

Black hole burps out star it swallowed years ago

https://nerdist.com/article/black-ho...gn=social+flow

[Kepler]

Black hole burps out star it swallowed years ago

https://nerdist.com/article/black-ho...gn=social+flow

Wow, I had no idea these things occurred in human-sized time intervals. I figured it was centuries at least. This is the Five Second Rule by interstellar standards.

[dxmnkd316]

Wow, I had no idea these things occurred in human-sized time intervals. I figured it was centuries at least. This is the Five Second Rule by interstellar standards.

lol

And agree. I thought it took decades for it to accelerate and send it out on jets

[MichVandal]

Wow, I had no idea these things occurred in human-sized time intervals. I figured it was centuries at least. This is the Five Second Rule by interstellar standards.

Maybe within the 5 second rule, but clearly the star was infected with something to cause that kind of indigestion.

[dxmnkd316]

Maybe within the 5 second rule, but clearly the star was infected with something to cause that kind of indigestion.

Thanks good it wasn't the other end

[Kepler]

Thanks good it wasn't the other end

Spoiler: our universe is the other end.