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Water-based gels can be formed by a wide variety of substances.
Agarose (from seaweed) will gel at concentrations as low as 0.2%,
and
some more obscure compounds can, allegedly, form gels at
concentrations below 0.1%.
A few hundred tons of the dry compound, dumped in lines parallel
to
rivers,
would form a self-setting flood barrier weighing several
hundred
thousand tons.
Alternatively, dumping the stuff into the upper reaches of the
river might do interesting (and possibly helpful) things to its flow.
Cleanup might be an issue, post-flood, but inclusion of HFCS in the
mix, coupled with the persistent industry of local ants, might
resolve
this problem.
Wave wearing gel
http://randomknowle...-wave-off-kanagawa/
[MaxwellBuchanan, Jan 17 2011]
Ice Nine
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice-nine
Fictional water polymorph stable above room temperature [cowtamer, Jan 18 2011]
Polymer sand bags
http://www.nbcnews....p-young-f8C11371015
[scad mientist, Nov 25 2014]
Jelly flood!
https://www.youtube...watch?v=6jpogdvjKLY
Shaky documentary footage of this approach in action [Loris, Nov 26 2014]
Jelly flood! Jelly flood!
https://www.youtube...watch?v=gNiXf7Lejf0
more - less shaky - footage from Ben and Holly [Loris, Nov 26 2014]
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Annotation:
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Hmm. Given the notorious turbulence of floodwaters, we wouldn't even have to worry about stirring it, I think. |
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With some quite unreasonable luck, it might look like this
<link> |
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You missed an opportunity here - it should be custard! (Thick, gooey, not-very-flowy custard.)
Other than that, I think it's actually a good idea. |
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The problem with custard is that you need quite a large mass
of cornstarch to custefy a given amount of water. |
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Moreover, custard will creep, meaning that the flood is
slowed, but not stopped. |
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OK, jelly it is then. Funny that both useful substances are dessert foods... |
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Sounds like a gentler, kinder "Ice Nine" (see link --
halfbaked by Kurt Vonnegut, one of the greatest
half-bakers of all time IMHO) |
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Fair enough [+]. Might you not end up with a huge, teetering pile of jelly? |
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Well, a huge, teetering pile of jelly which melts slowly in the sunshine, releasing its water content over a few weeks is better than a sudden flash-flood. My only slight concern is that by creating a vast jelly dam, you may also create a vast artificial lake behind the dam. This lake might actually be on top of where some people live, which would be bad news for them. Also, jelly is not famed for its structural integrity and if the vast jelly dam were to rupture then it wouldn't just be the communities submerged in the lake which would suffer but also everyone downstream of the dam, who would be deluged by a massive tidal wave of water, jelly and the corpses of those drowned in the lake. Otherwise a fantastic idea. |
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I'm not saying i dislike the prospect of such a pile. I was mainly savouring the mental image. However, i had also thought of the possibility of a sudden dam burst. |
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If this was agar agar, if it could be rendered safe you could maybe use it to grow useful microorganisms. |
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...<film plot>which the handsome, yet flawed scientist would discover, while working late in his lab, was actually an evil micro-organism destined to cover the world in a 10-metre-thick layer of goo. Can he kill the micro-organism with the antidote before the goo covers his girlfriend's house?</film plot> |
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/dumping the stuff/ how scientific! |
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But what if cold weather caused the flattened circular or lozenge disc shapes to freeze? In order to prevent this, they should be pre-soaked in some sort of antifreeze solution, such as Sherry. |
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thixotropic material doesn't have to be yellow. |
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Those super absorbant gels either rise or sink, and
they have relatively low tensile strength especially as
powder. |
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Basically you would get the front few hundred yards
of the flood to be gooey and the rest would still wash
away your house as normal. |
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Might be able to use them to say soak up a pond
temporarily to do work |
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// to say soak up a pond temporarily to do work// |
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That probably warrants a posting in its own right. Need to
clean the pond? Lower some loops of rope into the pond,
add gelling agent, allow to set. Lift out pond (complete with
fish) using the rope loops, remove dead leaves and crud,
replace pond, add gel-breaking agent. |
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It reminds me of my idea to use old "disposable" nappies to protect Norfolk (UK) from the effects of rising sea levels, that I never posted. |
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Though I'm not sure I would like to be hit by flooding, followed by huge piles of old nappies that the emergency services had been saving in a national stockpile up just in case. |
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This would be a great way to prevent flooding from glaciers melting, as the previous poster alluded to. |
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A very large sponge (VLS) may be neater though, if one large enough could be constructed. |
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I envision this gel being deployed as "expandbags" - long fusiform bags of powder which expand on contact with water. They would occupy space and so could be used a part of a hasty wall. No doubt ordinary sandbags would be needed as well to weigh down the expandbags. |
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That's going to need to be some pretty tough gel. |
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I had just crossed a solid log bridge as a flooded river ripped it apart once. Got me a real good veiw of the force involved.
Yep, pretty tough gel. |
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"long fusiform bags of powder which expand on contact with water" |
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Exactly. I just thought it would be a waste to use new nappies, when used ones are only half (or less) used on average. Loose tabs would help to bond the structure, but that might have to be specially organised with the previous users. |
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Might need to add quite a lot of HFCS to tempt the ants though. |
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Maybe mix the polymer with the sand? |
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Or you could use Simpson's Individual Emperor Stringettes. |
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An 11 year old won $25k for reinventing (or
recycling) your idea of using a polymer in sand bags.
See link. |
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//An 11 year old won $25k for reinventing (or recycling)
your idea of using a polymer in sand bags. See link// |
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Some spotty twerp got on the BBC for having the bright idea
of using dirt cheap USB microscopes for cell motility.
Something I did better 5 years ago. These things happen. |
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I say anyone who can convert the incandescent genius put forth on the halfbakery into his or her own fun, profit and groupies deserves every bit of it. |
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Sandbags which are as light as water will wash away, so useless. Unless you want to backstop them with stakes driven deep into the ground (perhaps driven through the sandbags), in which case you'd probably want to start from scratch on the design anyways. |
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