Questions tagged [water]
For questions that have to do with the liquid form of H2O.
262
questions
7
votes
2
answers
3k
views
A man wants to create a bomb shelter in a small cave on his land, but there's no visible water source, except a dripping wall. What to do?
A man who wants to live in a hidden cave on his mountain property in the Pyrenees has hired a caver to evaluate the cave as a bomb shelter in case of a nuclear war. The cave is small compared to most ...
- 71
17
votes
11
answers
4k
views
What could lead a large ocean on a planet's surface to recede completely only to reappear later on in a cyclical process?
I don't just mean tides or large-scale floods and droughts but a premise where one or more large bodies of water (or even every such body if that makes it easier) disappear, only to reappear one or ...
- 471
8
votes
5
answers
2k
views
Getting Water Vapour to Condense in the Lungs
So the human body temperature is much lower than that of the cave environment. That means that the air you're breathing is hotter than the inside of your lungs. In these conditions, the humidity from ...
0
votes
1
answer
66
views
What is the danger zone of a waterfall to aircraft?
In my world, which is similar to that described in this answer, with suspended platforms between 5 and 40 km above the global sea, with 1 ATM at 25km altitude, with a similar gravity and scale height ...
- 56.2k
-1
votes
1
answer
204
views
Is this SpaceEngine atmosphere realistic?
Height of homogenous atmosphere: 15.26km
Atmospheric pressure: 4.76 atm
Air density: 4.8323kg/m^3
Air temperature: 45.704°C
Speed of sound: 364.65 m/sec
Exosphere temperature: 1255.9°C
Greenhouse ...
13
votes
5
answers
3k
views
Is it possible for an artesian basin to go underneath a shallow sea while still being freswater?
An artesian basin is an aquifer in which water within permeable rock is kept under pressure between 2 layers of impermeable rock.
I don't know if any artesian basin exists like this in real life, but ...
- 3,863
2
votes
3
answers
388
views
What could someone do with Hydrokinesis (the ability to control water with your mind)? [closed]
Someone has the ability to manipulate and shape water from any source. They cannot create water from nothing, but they can control it at a molecular level. For example, they can change the properties ...
6
votes
2
answers
1k
views
Problems with turning a brackish endoheric lake into freshwater by artificially making an outflow?
A nation wants to utilize a large, currently brackish & endoheric body of water for irrigation & drinking. Damming the rivers & moving the water from there isn't considered viable for the ...
- 3,863
28
votes
6
answers
8k
views
How long could a person survive on nothing but water, salt, and sugar?
Magic System
One of my worlds has a magic system that allows people to produce any element, as well as a small number of molecules. When something is produced using magic, it spawns into existence in ...
- 1,902
5
votes
5
answers
1k
views
Is it possible to melt icebergs for water at below the cost of desalination with 1960s/1970s technology?
(i'm going to use dollars for cost because i don't really want to figure out currency conversions for the in world currencies)
In this world people need water, a lot of water. But in areas that don't ...
- 3,863
2
votes
1
answer
1k
views
Could a pre-industrial society make a heavy load neutrally buoyant?
I have a society of merfolk in fantasy novel (humans from the waist, fish tail from waist down, biology isn't important in this story, nothing complicated). While the humans are around 1850s tech, the ...
- 3,167
4
votes
2
answers
288
views
Will the oxygen content in atmosphere increase if we boil oceans? How much, and what's the max % increase?
From what I understand, Dissolved Oxygen is nothing but Molecular Oxygen (O2) loosely bonded with water -- and thus the bond is not chemical, and breaking it would not result to any changes in the ...
- 41
6
votes
3
answers
720
views
Using asteroids for water
I have a planet that has no natural water bodies or sources. Is it feasible (assuming technology along the lines of the Earth Engines from "The Wandering Earth") to take asteroids from a ...
- 73
5
votes
3
answers
186
views
World built inside a gigantic drainage pipe
I'm doing a Pratchett style fantasy book, and the setting - the Downspout - is built in a downspout of an astronomically sized gutter drain pipe.
We're assuming an impossibly large structure housing ...
- 184
4
votes
2
answers
349
views
Breathable air on large space habitat with no water?
I am theorising a scenario in which humans land on a continent-size space habitat of alien origin (probably a rotating habitat).
The gravity is similar to Earth's (96/97% of Earth's) and the air is ...
- 113
0
votes
2
answers
211
views
How much water must I dump on the Sun to put it out forever? [closed]
Water blows out fire and stop it from burning. How much volume of water, $H_2O$, is needed to put out the sun forever?
- 35
-1
votes
1
answer
70
views
Hycean world space travel [closed]
Hycean worlds are planets which bridge the gap between rocky and gas giant planets. They have atmospheres high in hydrogen and vast oceans with perhaps no dry land at all. How could the local sentient ...
- 3,134
6
votes
7
answers
1k
views
Why do my Androids need to eat and drink? [closed]
What would be a good reason for androids to have a need to eat and drink (not necessarily human food)?
The human body requires food and water in order to refuel and sustain itself, but in the case of ...
1
vote
1
answer
155
views
Could a planet have oceans of heavy water? [duplicate]
Heavy water, or deuterium oxide, is a form of water where the hydrogen atoms contain a proton and a neutron, rather than just a proton as in “normal water”. It is toxic to earth life but luckily, on ...
- 8,459
8
votes
13
answers
3k
views
How to stop water runoff on floating islands that lack an available surface
I am building a world with islands floating in air, and I'm looking for solutions to loss of water from runoff/erosion (think rivers emptying off the side of the islands). The islands vary in size, ...
- 83
6
votes
4
answers
131
views
Feasible? A natural geothermal water pump the scale of multiple Mississippi rivers
I want a continent of waterfalls: a place on the scale of South America where the land is broken terraces from mountain heights to sea level. And I want massive waterfalls to be ubiquitous, like ...
- 25.4k
2
votes
3
answers
151
views
What adaptations would be needed for life and water around a blue star?
Of course it's very obvious that blue stars are insanely hot and would boil away most things if they got too close. BUT I'm curious if with just the right adaptations and fiddling, could there, ...
- 393
1
vote
2
answers
113
views
Converting mars’ atmosphere to water
So, I have come to the decision that there is no one easy way to bring water to Mars. So, in light of that, i have decided on several methods which will be used simultaneously, and which I hope will ...
- 8,459
-2
votes
3
answers
157
views
How much of Mars is covered if 10 quadrillion tonnes of water fall on it?
The setting:
In trying to terraform Mars quickly, I am imagining that Phobos, (the bigger of its two moons) holds ten-quadrillion tonnes of water ice beneath its stony regolith. I am further supposing ...
- 8,459
1
vote
0
answers
257
views
What global warming level would be needed to keep the dew point of some place above the temperature of the lungs for at least 1 month per year?
Title might be a bit hard to understand but let me explain : when the dew point is above humans temperature (37℃) the water condenses in the lungs which are at a lower temperature than the air which ...
- 484
3
votes
6
answers
206
views
sources of water for martian terraformers
The terraforming of Mars, assuming that the hurdle of establishing a magnetic field has already been jumped, now meets another problem: water. The planet has a pair of ice caps, but between them they ...
- 8,459
3
votes
3
answers
293
views
Fog and a small "Tsunami", appearing suddenly
For the final act of a story I'm building, I'm planning a scene that involves the sudden appearance of fog, along with a small Tsunami, affecting part of the city.
To ask this question, I am going to ...
- 155
4
votes
7
answers
2k
views
Habitable planet without oceans and with all rivers flowing towards the poles
The surface of this planet is about 3/4 the one of earth. It has no oceans or seas, its landscape defined by huge mountain ranges between 15 and 25km high. Most mountain ranges are latitudinal (N-S), ...
- 806
4
votes
2
answers
1k
views
How would the water cycle work on a planet with barely any atmosphere?
See title.
My world is far away from any stars so radiation is of no worry but a very active volcanic system keeps the temperature at similar rates to our planet. The lack of an atmosphere stops any ...
- 533
8
votes
3
answers
160
views
Would convection cycles happen in my water-filled space station?
Imagine a space station orbiting a star.
The station is not orbiting a planet.
The station has cylinder shape and is orienting its side to the sunlight.
The station is rotating just like any O'Neil ...
- 3,820
5
votes
8
answers
3k
views
When dealing with a drought or a bushfire, is a million tons of water overkill?
The people of the Vorfall Panzer Werkstat gesellschaft build the largest aircraft in the galaxy. The pride of their fleet is currently the Gyre Explorer, which is an aircraft weighing in at 140,000 ...
- 56.2k
2
votes
2
answers
121
views
Could animals/plants survive off of coolant instead of water?
Say there was a source of water that animals and plants alike were surviving in, a sort of desert oasis situation, here we have Fred, he is an animal who lives off of this body of water. Buts let's ...
- 1,612
3
votes
4
answers
238
views
Any natural way that a River can "move" by hundreds of kilometers seasonally
I'm designing a Nomadic culture and I had an interesting concept.
One of the reasons for nomadism is to find resources that "move" annually.
In the case of pastoral nomads, it is to find new ...
- 697
26
votes
6
answers
8k
views
Is it biologically plausible for a land animal to drink saltwater and not drink freshwater?
I'm trying to come up with a land animal that can drink saltwater but for some reason cannot drink freshwater. The advantage of drinking saltwater would be that they can get drinking water straight ...
-2
votes
2
answers
112
views
Would a solar flare hitting the earth cause rainfall? [closed]
If you have hydrogen gas, oxygen gas and heat together, it will trigger an (exotermic) reaction that produces water.
Earths atmosphere consists of around 21% oxygen.
Our sun is made mostly out of ...
- 173
6
votes
2
answers
341
views
How to Feed a City with a Subarctic Climate?
The city of Civitas Sykofantia sits on the shore of Lake Sykofantia, a high-elevation salt lake the size of Lake Superior in the US. The lake is located on the Great Pagomenos Plateau, a huge ...
- 5,912
5
votes
2
answers
115
views
Permeability of mountainous rock by seawater
This is tied to a previous question of mine Does atmospheric pressure relate to altitude or sea level, what would happen if sea level rose, but the land was not submerged?
Given the same scenario of a ...
- 523
0
votes
1
answer
144
views
What geographic/climate changes does the Arabian Peninsula need to become a rainforest?
Despite being surrounded by waters on all sides, the Arabian Peninsula is mostly a massive desert. As a result, Arabia was generally a hinterland for most of early history and there aren't a lot of ...
1
vote
0
answers
91
views
Weather patterns on a world with a homogenous distribution of land and ocean?
What would the weather patterns be like on an Earth with a more homogenous distribution of land and ocean? That is, keep the overall amount of water the same, the ratio of water to land the same (...
- 11
7
votes
4
answers
2k
views
Was there a waterproof paper or a substitute that could be written on in the medieval ages?
I'm making a character that keeps their books stored in their many large mouths. Thing is, it's a medieval setting and I'm not sure how the book would be made to survive being in such an environment.
- 270
2
votes
3
answers
334
views
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 ...
- 697
7
votes
3
answers
2k
views
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....
- 457
4
votes
3
answers
393
views
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&...
- 1,782
8
votes
5
answers
1k
views
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 ...
- 1,487
6
votes
2
answers
434
views
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 ...
- 5,912
5
votes
3
answers
552
views
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? ...
- 632
5
votes
5
answers
203
views
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 ...
- 51
15
votes
8
answers
3k
views
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 ...
- 1,259
6
votes
5
answers
329
views
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 ...
- 7,467
8
votes
2
answers
323
views
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 ...
- 133