The Great Walls of America: Some idiot designs a tornado barrier
91 replies, posted
[quote]The barriers - [B]300m (980ft) high and up to 100 miles long[/B] - would act like hill ranges, softening winds before twisters can form.
[B]They would cost $16bn (£9.6bn) to build but save billions of dollars of damage each year[/B], said Prof Rongjia Tao, of Temple University, Philadelphia.[/quote]
[quote][B]The proposed walls would not shelter towns - they would not be strong enough to block a tornado in motion.
[/B]
Instead, they would soften the clashing streams of hot southern and cold northern air, which form twisters in the first place, Prof Tao said.
"If we build three east-west great walls, one in North Dakota, one along the border between Kansas and Oklahoma, and the third in the south in Texas and Louisiana, we will diminish the threats in Tornado Alley forever," he said.
[B]As evidence, he points to China - where only three tornadoes were recorded last year, compared to 803 in the US.[/B]
China too has flat plain valleys running north-south, but the difference is they are broken up by east-west hill ranges.[/quote]
[quote]Rather than create an eyesore, the walls could be "attractively" designed, says Prof Tao.
He cites the Comcast skyscraper in Philadelphia - also about 300m high, and built with a reinforced glass exterior.
"[B]Our tornado wall could even be built of glass too. It could be a beautiful landmark[/B]," he told BBC News.[/quote]
[quote]Another leading tornado expert, Prof Joshua Wurman of the Center for Severe Weather Research, was equally dismissive of Prof Tao's proposal.
"[B]Everybody I know is of 100% agreement - this is a poorly conceived idea[/B]," he told BBC News.
"From what I can gather his concept of how tornadoes form is fundamentally flawed. Meteorologists cringe when they hear about 'clashing hot and cold air'. It's a lot more complicated than that."[/quote]
[url=http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-26492720]-It's the Beeb-[/url]
How the hell do they find these people?
I don't think this guy understands how weather works.
More realistic to shoot bombs into tornados. And that idea is crazy.
why don't we just blow up tornados
it'll probably work
[editline]8th March 2014[/editline]
[QUOTE=Ithon;44170387]More realistic to shoot bombs into tornados. And that idea is crazy.[/QUOTE]
wow
[QUOTE]300m (980ft) high and up to 100 miles long[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE]They would cost $16bn (£9.6bn) to build[/QUOTE]
Sounds just a bit optimistic.
Just start building all Midwestern structures [I]underground[/I]. Problem solved, buddy!
Gotta keep the titans out somehow
[QUOTE=Ithon;44170387]More realistic to shoot bombs into tornados. And that idea is crazy.[/QUOTE]
Hey, it worked in Sharknado, I don't see why it wouldn't work for you guys.
[QUOTE=NeonpieDFTBA;44170407]I think that might be a bit optimistic.[/QUOTE]
For a hundred mile long, 300m tall glass wall strong enough to resist storm winds? Ye, dude forgot to carry the 1, I think.
I wanted to see, roughly in scale, how tall a 300m wall would be.
Imagine the New York Times Tower, but 100 miles long
[t]http://megaconstrucciones.net/images/rascacielos/foto/the-new-york-times-building-5.jpg[/t]
Could this potentially completely fuck up the climate in the mid west?
[editline]8th March 2014[/editline]
just make buildings in the midwest like bunkers, surely that can be done.
My house has a tornado shelter made of concrete and shag carpeting
dont let the lizardmen fool you
this is for the kaiju
I thought they were going to be something like broad pillars to create interference patterns in the wind (I'm pretty sure this could be used for tsunami) not a literal wall.
no wall will stop the white walkers. you know nothing jon snow.
The only method to prevent tonradoes from doing mass destruction is to design buildings into hills.
[img]http://www.simondale.net/images/front.jpg[/img]
Having a building like this setup where most of the living quarters are on the lower level, and any upper levels are fortified under dirt would protect against tornadoes to a certain degree.
And this guy is a Professor?
[QUOTE=zerglingv2;44170558]And this guy is a Professor?[/QUOTE]
Anyone with enough money can get a title of Professor and Teacher.
Just remember that :v:
Typical startuper
[QUOTE=zerglingv2;44170558]And this guy is a Professor?[/QUOTE]
I don't see what's so ridiculous about this idea.
[editline]8th March 2014[/editline]
and also calling it before it happens: The newly discovered wikipedia meterologists are going to swoop in and pretend they're experts on weather due to copy-paste.
[QUOTE=katbug;44170949]I don't see what's so ridiculous about this idea.[/QUOTE]
Walls don't matter when Tornadoes can just go over them; it's also impossibly large and the costs would be unfeasible for their projections.
[QUOTE=JoeSkylynx;44170582]Anyone with enough money can get a title of Professor and Teacher.
Just remember that :v:[/QUOTE]
It's not really a title, more a job.
[QUOTE=katbug;44170949]I don't see what's so ridiculous about this idea.
[editline]8th March 2014[/editline]
and also calling it before it happens: The newly discovered wikipedia meterologists are going to swoop in and pretend they're experts on weather due to copy-paste.[/QUOTE]
A one hundred mile long, thousand-foot tall wall made out of glass doesn't sound ridiculous to you?
If he adds several miles onto the height, it'll be a great idea!
[QUOTE=Big Dumb American;44171005]A one hundred mile long, thousand-foot tall wall made out of glass doesn't sound ridiculous to you?[/QUOTE]
Does it?
I mean, I make these things all the time in my backyard, it's not [i]that[/i] ridiculous.
A 1km high 10m thick wall made from carbon nanotubes, titanium and bound by diamonds will do the job :v:
Even if it did mitigate some tornadoes I don't think the cost of building such a thing could be justified.
Just manufacture an anti-tornado to cancel out the tornado
[QUOTE=Big Dumb American;44171005]A one hundred mile long, thousand-foot tall wall made out of glass doesn't sound ridiculous to you?[/QUOTE]
It doesn't to my parents and brother when I told them that this is probably one of the most idiotic plans I've ever heard, because ''It is a professor, he probably knows what he is doing.''
Even after I even told them how ridiculously huge that wall would be compared to other things, as example, a glass wall from here to the southern border with the height of the Eiffel Tower, and they still thought it was an ambitious idea which could work.
[img]http://i.imgur.com/FlODO8y.jpg[/img]
???
Sorry, you need to Log In to post a reply to this thread.