Fun with Geometry

[Thumper]

No this shouldn't be in Science...
Yesterday afternoon while at the local funeral home to pay respects to my veteran neighbor and his family, I got a text from my Mother in Law. She said, "I went down to the basement and there was standing water, what should I do." Actually, she lives in a nice manufactured home with no basement, that is adjacent and connected to an old farm house with a dirt basement accessed by a walkout. But that's a longer story. In the dirt basement is access to the incoming water supply from the well along with a softener and a water heater. I got home, loaded up and headed over. I somewhat expected to see several feet of water when we opened the access doors, but was actually disappointed when there only appeared to be 4-6 inches of water that didn't even reach the higher corners of the uneven floor. I primed my gas powered pump. got the suction and discarge hoses placed and fired it up. I was disappointed that the water level didn't seem to be going down. I checked both ends, the suction hose was, well sucking and the discharge was spraying out a high powered stream of water. Holy cow, I thought, that's a lot more water than I thought. I know my pump will move 20-30 gallons/minute. After running the throttle to full, then moving the suction hose around to the low spots, I finally finished, loaded up and headed home to a late dinner. I was there over an hour. How much water was down there?

So back of the envelope, very rough math. There is 7.48 gallons of water/cubic foot (STP of course). So the basement is 15 to 20 feet square. Estimate an average depth of 6 inches and that easily could have been over 1000 gallons. I checked the pump specs and it will move 37 gallons/minute. (Probably less last night because I had a standard garden discharge hose rather than a 1 inch. So it makes sense that my little pump screamed for over a half an hour before the vast majority of the water was gone.

On a related note, that makes some sense now when I drove through some high water on a flooded roadway last week. We've had so much rain that a low spot just out side the village had flooded. Difficult to notice on that dark stretch at 5:30am, I slammed into it my neck snapped forward as the car drastically slowed and the shoulder belt dug into my chest. Back of the envelope again, that could have been another 1000 gallons (over 8000 pounds at 8.35lbs/gal) of water my car tried to push.

See, math is fun.

[SciFiFisher]

There is also a law that requires everything to seem to take longer than it should.

[Thumper]

I believe I am assigned to continually verify that law with everything but vacations.

[geonuc]

Yep, that sure sounds like fun.

[Thumper]

That pump sits on the shelf of the garage most of the time. As I was setting it up, I told her, "I don't wish a flooded basement on anyone, but I'm glad I have the right tool for this job and it gets to be used."

[SciFiFisher]

That pump sits on the shelf of the garage most of the time. As I was setting it up, I told her, "I don't wish a flooded basement on anyone, but I'm glad I have the right tool for this job and it gets to be used."

I agree that having the tools you need really make the difference. Sometimes I let them sit on the Home Depot shelf until I need them.

[Sigma_Orionis]

That pump sits on the shelf of the garage most of the time. As I was setting it up, I told her, "I don't wish a flooded basement on anyone, but I'm glad I have the right tool for this job and it gets to be used."

I agree that having the tools you need really make the difference. Sometimes I let them sit on the Home Depot shelf until I need them.

[SciFiFisher]

Honestly, I have a few basic tools and some minimal hardware. What I discovered years ago was that I never seemed to be able to find the specific item I KNEW I had in the garage/shed/storage. I would waste hours and hours looking for it and then say "fudge it" and go to the hardware store and get the specific piece of hardware that I KNEW I had. Usually, within a few days of buying the SECOND or THIRD hardware item I needed, I would come across the original one I knew I had.

I stopped buying or keeping things that I might need later under the assumption that the universe takes perverse pleasure out of watching me buy things twice because I cannot find the one in storage. I have a few basic screws and nails. Some basic tools. If I need a spring hinge for a self-closing door I can drive to the %&$*#(%v hardware store and buy it ONCE.

[Thumper]

That sounds like a good course of action.

[geonuc]

I've always subscribed to the notion that you can't have too many tools.

[Thumper]

Right! And now my Mother-in-law really wants me to go through all my Father-an-law's tools and pick out the ones I want. I'm may have to get another tool chest.

[code monkey]

Right! And now my Mother-in-law really wants me to go through all my Father-an-law's tools and pick out the ones I want. I'm may have to get another tool chest.

you say that as though that's a bad thing.

similar to books - the problem is never too many books; it's too few bookcases.