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Bill Nelson
Unity Member
Post Number: 2877
Registered: 10-2002

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Posted on Sunday, November 11, 2007 - 07:17 pm:

I found this interesting.
A giant sequoia pumps over one thousand gallons of water to a height of hundreds of feet every single day (without benefit of a mechanical pump). Some of them are thousands of years old!
What can man learn from that?

Todd Hunter
Mindsight Moderator
Post Number: 3710
Registered: 02-2003

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Posted on Sunday, November 11, 2007 - 09:06 pm:

That if we cut down all those trees, we wouldn't have such a large water shortage?

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Stephen Lodge
Wisdom Member
Post Number: 600
Registered: 06-2004

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Posted on Sunday, November 11, 2007 - 09:36 pm:

Now, that was funny ~

http://www.stephenlodge.com
Novels by Stephen Lodge:
"Charley Sunday's Texas Outfit!"
"Nickel-Plated Dream"
"Shadows of Eagles"

Bill Nelson
Unity Member
Post Number: 2881
Registered: 10-2002

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Posted on Monday, November 12, 2007 - 02:32 pm:

Sounds like a Demo's answer to the water problem!

Fred Dungan
Unity Member
Post Number: 1993
Registered: 10-2002

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Posted on Wednesday, November 14, 2007 - 06:08 pm:

Do you suck? What you need is some capillary action.

http://www.dunganbooks.com

Bill Nelson
Unity Member
Post Number: 2883
Registered: 10-2002

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Posted on Thursday, November 15, 2007 - 08:37 am:

Fred,
That's a very personal question.

Fred Dungan
Unity Member
Post Number: 1994
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Posted on Thursday, November 15, 2007 - 04:11 pm:

"In reality, the suction that exists within the water-conducting cells arises from the evaporation of water molecules from the leaves. Each water molecule has both positive and negative electrically charged parts. As a result, water molecules tend to stick to one another; that adhesion is why water forms rounded droplets on a smooth surface and does not spread out into a completely flat film. As one water molecule evaporates through a pore in a leaf, it exerts a small pull on adjacent water molecules, reducing the pressure in the water-conducting cells of the leaf and drawing water from adjacent cells. This chain of water molecules extends all the way from the leaves down to the roots and even extends out from the roots into the soil. So the simple answer to the question about what propels water from the roots to the leaves is that the sun's energy does it: heat from the sun causes the water to evaporate, setting the water chain in motion."

-Professor Dickman, University of Oregon in Eugene excerpt from Scientific American

Remember the celery experiment in grade school where you put some celery in a glass of water, added several drops of red food coloring, and watched the celery soak up the red water to the top of the plant? That is capillary action. Add to that the pressure from water evaporating from the leaves and you have how the redwood manages to get water from the roots to the top of the tree.

"Now if transpiration from the leaf decreases, as usually occurs at night or during cloudy weather, the drop in water pressure in the leaf will not be as great, and so there will be a lower demand for water (less tension) placed on the xylem. The loss of water from a leaf (negative water pressure, or a vacuum) is comparable to placing suction to the end of a straw. If the vacuum or suction thus created is great enough, water will rise up through the straw. If you had a very large diameter straw, you would need more suction to lift the water. Likewise, if you had a very narrow straw, less suction would be required. This correlation occurs as a result of the cohesive nature of water along the sides of the straw (the sides of the xylem). Because of the narrow diameter of the xylem tubing, the degree of water tension, (vacuum) required to drive water up through the xylem can be easily attained through normal transpiration rates that often occur in leaves."

So says Dickman.

http://www.dunganbooks.com/duke.htm

Frank Mazur
Wandering Member
Post Number: 226
Registered: 02-2005

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Posted on Thursday, November 15, 2007 - 05:42 pm:

Okay, Fred, you're on a roll. So what's the explanation for the following and how do the trees circumvent it....

If you have a normal-sized straw and insert it into an RC Cola, you will be able to drink the cola. But if you were given a straw, say, 50 feet long and you insert it into the RC and draw upon it, you will be out of luck.

Note to Bill: This has nothing to do with Democrats, tree-huggers, the Sierra Club, environmentalists, or Al Gore.

3-dollar gas. Writers' strike. Read a great book by F. E. Mazur.

SPINE
THE BUCKSELLER
"A BIGGER CASE"

Tom Elkins
Wisdom Member
Post Number: 886
Registered: 01-2005

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Posted on Thursday, November 15, 2007 - 07:06 pm:

Frank - How do you know that? Have you ever tried drinking an RC through a 50-foot straw?

Tom Elkins
NORTH of TEXAS
www.authorsden.com/tomelkins

Pacwriter
Unity Member
Post Number: 3083
Registered: 04-2002

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Posted on Thursday, November 15, 2007 - 07:38 pm:

I bet Bill Clinton knows somebody who could handle a 50 foot straw

http://www.perrycomer.com

Fred Dungan
Unity Member
Post Number: 1995
Registered: 10-2002

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Posted on Thursday, November 15, 2007 - 11:41 pm:

Alright Frank. The reason is atmospheric pressure. Under ideal conditions at sea level, it would be impossible to suck up water more than 32 feet through a soda straw. And that goes for any straw of greater than or equal to diameter. Trees get around this by utilizing miniscule tubes - dead cells called xylem - that allow capillary action to play a big part.

http://www.fdungan.com/well.htm

Bill Nelson
Unity Member
Post Number: 2884
Registered: 10-2002

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Posted on Friday, November 16, 2007 - 10:58 am:

Frank,

I won't try to politicize your question, but it really sucks!

I watched the Demo Pres. debates (?) last night. I can't decide who has the
biggest collections of clowns, the Dems or the Repubs.
I wish there was a way to sweep every single person in Congress out, as well as
the White House. I don't think there is one honest body that is earnestly looking out for the American people.
And, Frank, it sure as hell is not the ACLU anymore than the KKK.
This country's moral fiber is rotten to the core.
Sorry, I get this way every four years.
Where's Harry Truman when you need him?

Fred Dungan
Unity Member
Post Number: 1997
Registered: 10-2002

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Posted on Friday, November 16, 2007 - 09:38 pm:

And now to return to the original question. "What can man learn...?"

Answer: Evidently, not much.

http://www.dunganbooks.com

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Posted on Monday, April 14, 2008 - 07:42 am:

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Posted on Wednesday, April 30, 2008 - 03:24 am:

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