Questions tagged [water]
For questions that have to do with the liquid form of H2O.
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Is a Bussard Ramjet for collecting water possible
My spacecraft's propellant is water, so an idea I came up with is that it would melt icy bodies in the rings of gas giants into water vapour. Is it possible to collect water vapour with some sort of ...
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Is orangeish water possible on an alien planet with advanced life?
A planet little bigger than earth with slightly less gravity.
Colder than the earth, with longer days and shorter years. And water prevalence: 32% (23% surface water and 9% subterranean) and two moons....
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Is a world where all the water is "heavy water" possible?
I recently discovered that there is another kind of water : heavy water.
Heavy water is made of deuterium, a heavier isotope of hydrogen. Heavy water itself is 11% percent heavier than "normal&...
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What would this combination lubricant/cleaning solution smell like and taste like?
On an alien Dyson Sphere up in space, there is a blackish-blue slime that is everywhere on the sphere. It's slippery to the touch and is basically a combination of cleaning fluid, disinfectant, and ...
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Could a Massive Freshwater Lake and River System Exist in a Desert Environment?
In my book series, there is this lake called Lake Pheron. Lake Pheron's surface is located about 2,200 feet above sea level in a mostly flat, inland area called the Tangolian Desert. This desert is ...
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Geyser as drinkable water source in arid climate
My world is a life-bearing moon orbiting a gas giant. There will be plenty of geysers due to gravitational tectonic activity. Is it possible for geysers to happen in the middle of hot and arid biomes? ...
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How different would water need to be for boats to be impossible?
I mean changing the actual physics behind water (density, and other properties). How different would water need to be, to result in ships being impossible to build? (i.e. the ability to create ...
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Tide without moons
I’m creating a planet which is relatively similar in size towards earth being slightly smaller. It’s covered in oceans and about only 17% of it is covered in land. The planet has no moons.
I don’t ...
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How can I make a technologically correct horizontal watermill clock?
Context
As I was working on some mechanical ideas (and practicing art), I wanted to see how to render time in creative ways. So I decided to make an horizontal watermill akin to a turbine, which has ...
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How dangerous would a vertical water surface be?
In my setting, there is an area that is usually filled with water at high tide and a land bridge at low tide. One day, a magical wall appeared that does not let water through, but does let through ...
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How much water does an animal need per day to survive?
I'm creating a TTRPG game where players can play as vertebrates from any time period on earth. I'm trying to make my game as realistic as possible and one thing I have to do to make it more realistic ...
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How does a plain surrounded by desert get rain?
So, in my world, I have a city built in a plain surrounded by a desert. The plain got to be there by magic and general hand waving and was sustained in a similar way. At some point, that stopped being ...
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Transit for an advanced aquatic species?
I'm designing an aquatic, fish-like species for a sci-fi setting and I've had trouble deciding on methods of transit, particularly mass transit, that would be viable for them. I've considered a few ...
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Plants or something else that enriches distilled water
I'm writing a story in a world very similar to our Earth, but with few differences.
In this world, the "human" beings have to deal with the shortage of drinkable water. But they have plenty ...
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Drinking water distribution in the event of permanent shortage [closed]
In a world with a strong water deficiency and without the possibility to produce more. It is at a level where some people die of thirst. How could drinking water usage be regulated? Distribution per ...
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Is it healthy to only drink rain water?
I read that it is perfectly fine to be drinking collected rain water as long as the air and the container are not polluted. However, would it be possible for a civilization to
survive and
live ...
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Can there be an ocean in a CO2 atmosphere?
See my first question here and other things about atmosphere: What would be the color of a CO2 atmosphere?
Hi so I have a planet with a CO2 atmosphere so can there be any ocean on this planet?
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Would merfolk kept in captivity suffer from lack of oxygen?
In my story, in the midst of a human-merfolk war, merfolk are captured by humans, and are periodically de-scaled (they grow back) to sell their colorful scales as jewelry.
In these farms, the merfolk ...
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What happens to my candy-creatures when they get wet and how do I stop it?
Dilithoids or as I call them candy-creatures are the lowest animals on the food-chain on my arid alien planet. What distinguishes them from other alien fauna is their simple body plan and their ...
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Could the differences between day and night on this desert planet allow for strictly nocturnal condensation?
Here's the basic gist of this (debatably) habitable Earth-like desert planet:
Size: Same as Earth
Rotation: 30 hours (three extra hours of daylight followed by three extra hours of night)
Revolution:...
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What would be the technological limitations of an advanced aquatic species? [duplicate]
My latest idea for worldbuilding involves a world in which the surface of the planet is 95% of the planet's surface covered in saltwater (there are still minerals and other collectible resources on ...
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How realistically practical is hydrokinetic flight?
According to what I've looked up, the average human is 60% water, and 60% of that water is in cells. Lets assume this "hydrokinesis" is limited to telekinetically lifting and moving liquid ...
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how do moons contribute to flooding [duplicate]
Okay so my planet is twice the size of earth(2 earths can fit inside) but has three celestial bodies(aka moons). does the size of the moons and planet contribute to flooding and the seas and ocean ...
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How efficient would pumping water uphill be using hydropower?
How efficient would hydropower be at pumping water upward? Waterwheels are the cornerstone of unmanned power and are basically gravity powered (solar too if you count the water cycle,) which is very ...
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What quantity of neutron radiation could a water-filled inflatable mattress functionally negate?
I have a character who's a paranoid lunatic that's convinced that a nuclear war is about to break out. As a result of this, they've pumped several inflatable mattresses - you know, the type used for ...
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What would the purgatorial lake be like?
The purgatorial lake in an artificial lake formed from the five rivers of heaven and hell. These rivers are:
The syrup river of heaven, a river of golden syrup
The seed river of heaven, a river of ...
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What would the climate and ecosystems be like if instead of water, land would be 71% of Earth's surface?
According to the Bureau of Reclamation, water covers about 71% of the Earth's surface. Everything from microbes in the ocean releasing greenhouse gases into the air, to the immense amount of water ...
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Is water recycling really necessary in space?
Solar panels = energy
Mineral harvesting machines= materials
3D printers that print solar panels= infinite energy
So we got the energy part out of the way for space travel, just build more satelites ...
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How big are the waves created by water falling from an absurdly large pipe into a quarry basin?
A pipe 200-meters in diameter comes out of a cliff face and turns downward, like a bathtub faucet. A torrent of water is coming out: 10 meters from exit of faucet to surface of lake. The lake is 40 ...
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How would a horse-sized water strider stay afloat and move on water efficiently
Water striders from the family Gerridae are infamous animals for their ability to skate on the waters surface, making them pleuston (surface-living) animals. Their entire bodies are waterproofed by ...
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What would happen if a huge solid ball (temperature zero kelvin) of helium appeared suddenly in a deep sea?
I'm writing a story about an icy alien culture which applies ultracold helium bombs that they can make appear at any place. The battle between good and evil translates in hot and cold. Though of ...
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How to submerge a 35x45x25 building in water? [closed]
Context:
I’m writing a true crime fiction (I think that’s the genre) story about a serial killer known as “The Electric Eel.” Their M.O. is targeting victims while they’re in water and electrocuting ...
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Are there any ways to move rainfall in the oceans to land?
The Earths oceans receive more precipitation than the land. Much of this precipitation happens in ecological dead zones such as the central pacific, southern Indian Ocean etc. So the precipitation ...
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What would realistically happen if you could water walk?
I like to add fantastical things and make them mundane. In this case, instead of building and maintaining a pedestrian bridge in a fantasy world they would create a waterwalking path. In this case, ...
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Hydrodynamics Question: What happens to water when you apply different extreme pressures?
I am building a magic system with a few components. One of them is built off a magical "touch stone" that interacts with an otherwise untouchable shadow race. I've decided to have a special ...
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World with only shallow waters?
Is a planet the size of earth minimum, probably even larger, plausible if it has no water depth below 70 meters?
user85807
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Would my character actually be able to use her "Waterbending" power to swim faster?
So, I have a character who has the ability to alter the velocity of any liquid water less than three inches away from her body, accelerating it in any direction she likes. With concentration and ...
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Desalination ice ships
This is mostly a mental exercise. Now that I've thought about it I feel a need to know what the issues are with this idea. I hope that's alright.
You create a ship that is a floating surface ...
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Are there any rules of thumb to predict which waters should have frequent storms on a fantasy map?
In RL there are areas more likely to have storms which affect ship design (and in premodern era routes).
Are there any rules of thumb to predict which waters would have frequent storms on a fantasy ...
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Feasibility of Capturing high energy atoms and energy in electromagnetic wave in cosmic rays, how to implement near planets?
I read this question about feasibility of capturing hydrogen from the Solar wind a while ago. Hydrogen in solar wind was exploited in that discussion. Here, does cosmic ray often close in towards a ...
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Can solar energy be used to desalinate seawater in Australia? [closed]
An Australian company is going to send solar energy 1, 2 to Singapore and likely to Indonesia.
Could or shall Lake Eyre basin be flooded with desalinated seawater using the solar energy harvested at ...
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Logistics Problem With Water Creation Magic
There's a facet of my magic system that uses a certain kind of crystal to create water out of the magic energy stored within. But, I don't want to solve the entire world's water supply issues with ...
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What kind of rock would be ideal for building a cistern? [closed]
You are forced to build cisterns on a large scale to save rainwater. You can only use hand tools. There is no electricity and no power tools. What rock are you looking for to hew the cistern out of ...
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Hydromancer's Parachute
I am a hydromancer. My magical prowess grants me two abilities:
I can breathe underwater (magically)
I can instantly summon a sphere of pure fresh water centered on myself that's up to 50 meters in ...
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Water in the interior of a very large continent
Consider a world that is much larger than Earth, but has Earthlike conditions on the surface. (Including gravity = 1g, by some suitable unobtainium.) Clearly, the surface could be covered in a large ...
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Long-term, what does my magical 2x2 mile raining deathtrap do to the surrounding land?
Earlier I asked a few questions about one particular part of my setting, which is an Earth in the immediate aftermath of a supernatural apocalypse that made the world a gridded globe of 2x2 mile "...
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How long would it take before the water flowing out from an encased and flooded suburb is drinkable?
One of the early events in my story involves a 2x2 mile section of a suburban town that is encased in invisible walls 100 feet (30m) high and perpetually subjected to heavy rain at a rate of about an ...
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How quickly would an inch per hour of rain flood an enclosed 2x2 mile area?
In my setting, an apocalyptic supernatural event made the earth into a gridded globe of "squares" (more like columns) that are roughly 2x2 miles at sea level, getting larger going up and ...
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What effect would water that is twice as dense, while still liquid, have if a human were to try and swim in it?
In my world there are two bodies of water. One acts as a radiation shield and is part of the atmosphere, so it needs some (undecided) force to keep it in place. The other is ideally twice as dense as ...
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How long does an iron cage remain effective underwater
I'm working on an idea similar to the one presented in the Old Guard; basically an immortal character is trapped in an iron casing from which they cannot escape, that is sent at the bottom of the sea. ...
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