Don't Get Neil Tyson Started on Water Towers
Neil deGrasse Tyson reveals his love of the engineering marvels that are NYC water towers.
Hosts
Neil deGrasse Tyson, Chuck Nice
Director
Dave Wiskus
Writers
PJ Scott-Blankenship, Blake Farrow
Animation Director
Bård Edlund
Animators
David Powell
Editor: Eric Schneider
Sound Designer: Jay Pellizzi
Producers
Amanda McLoughlin, Ben Ratner
Brilliant.org Producers
Blake Farrow, Danielle Scarano, Josh Silverman
StarTalk Radio
Executive Producers
Neil deGrasse Tyson, Helen Matsos
Producers
Laura Berland, Jeffrey Lee Simons, Lindsey Walker
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About StarTalk:
Science meets pop culture on StarTalk! Astrophysicist & Hayden Planetarium director Neil deGrasse Tyson, his comic co-hosts, guest celebrities & scientists discuss astronomy, physics, and everything else about life in the universe. Keep Looking Up!
#WaterTowers #Gravity #StarTalk #NeildeGrasseTyson
0:00 - Introduction
1:03 - What Do Water Towers Do?
2:16 - The Rings Of A Water Tower
4:06 - Why Smaller Buildings Don't Need Water Towers
5:36 - Sponsored By Brilliant
6:46 - Closing Notes
Neil reminds me of those teachers in school you’d just keep asking about the subject so he’d fill up the entire period and forget the assignment
That was fun
Mr catlin, all you had to do was bring up the Washington trip 😂
Had one named Mr O Riordan. French teacher. If you bounced off the right subject he might even keep you for the next class completely against the wishes of the teacher just to continue telling you about his experience with “insert here”
Neil interrupts himself
The real M.V.Ps
2:58 “plus the 500 at the bottom!” +500 appears for bottom level Neil: “I DIDN’T GET THERE YET!” _+500 disappears in fear_
Spethman Jones.... LMAO
You dont disrespect Neil deGrasse Tyson ... like the video did by omitting the deGrasse
Peter Connaghan I had to make sure it all fit concisely my friend, I’m sure Neil deGrasse Tyson would understand ; )
Spethman Jones not u, the op
LIKE IT SHOULD BE.
Listening to two grown men discuss the finer points of water storage/management is unironically entertaining. Not a sentence I anticipated writing when I got up today.
Because children normally deal with water towers?
@@mikemondano3624 Yeah, my 8-year-old neighbor Timmy has his sewage engineering degree. You should hear him go on about irrigation.
@@mattgrostick1499 Would you have his number by chance? I may have some questions! Incidentally, i'm a middle aged man that often acts like an 8 year old, so we would get along well! LOL
So do you normally anticipate every sentence you're going to write/ say, the moment you wake up?
@@mikemondano3624: Not so much. I've never seen children building them.
“Have you noticed those” “Yeah” “Have you thought about it” “Ahhhhh not really”
ah-oh-wai-WHAT? CEO OF BEIJING CORN? Learning about Irrigation, I see
Steven
the dude sounds fake, oh yea I love water towers, yet he never asked questions or looked into things. That type of love isn't real and is fake he don't like water towers at all
@@ravinraven6913Sometimes you just have too much on your plate to explore all your interests.
@@ravinraven6913 have YOU ever thought about those rings?
There should be an entire series called "Don't Get Neil Tyson Started on..."
I started to search in the same moment when i sow this video! :D
I like how Neils eating a apple during this with a IDGAF swagger
cha si ah ese man si habla
Or.... Neil Tyson, “Things I lose sleep over...”
yes because no one wants to hear his fake ass elite occoult bs!
Chuck “AND the other fivehu- Neil: “I DIDN’T GET THERE YET!” Infographic designer removed pre-emptive +500LBS graphic
😄
Huuu?
@@gustavoleon8158 2:58
I just imagine Chuck getting ready to pull out a graph, Neil yelling at him and then Chuck silently sliding it under his chair.
I thought Neil was going to erase him from existence
The water towers used to have a windmill that turned all day and night in the wind, which in turn pumped the water into the tower. No electricity needed!
This was a great episode. Fun fact though: in most large cities (New Orleans in my example) the volume of water in the full storage tanks is only enough to provide water for 15-20 minutes in a power outage. The purpose of the water towers it to dampen peak demand and water hammer form pumps, valves and fixtures being operated throughout the day…this helps stabilize water pressure throughout the day.
That’s a pretty good reason not to live in (most) large cities.
If the power goes out to the levy pumps in New Orleans, a shortage of water will be the least of the problems.
Yeah it's a buffer, otherwise the system would have to be built to satisfy peak demand rather than average demand.
the south is gross, the areas in texas I was in didn't have them. They had well water, which was...pumped using electricity lol so the power goes off, and so does the water, everywhere. Worst state of the USA that I been to hands down. Its like they don't know how to treat their people other than BAD
Correct. A water district or city COULD build enough water towers to provide effective storage, but imagine not only the huge costs, but the unsightliness of that many towers. It's a cost-benefit thing.
Real estate agent: "Yeah so this is a really nice property, if you would follow me to..." Buyer: "Your water tower hoops are far too spaced out; let's go honey, get the kids." 😂😂😂
Knowledge is power
@L7 what
You just, but you really don't want the water tower on your building to collapse. Trust me on that.
@Warrior Of Mankind two months later i can know understand what you're saying
@@cryojak807 It’s a quote from or quoted in the game Deus Ex (2000) during an interrogation sequence.
“If your structure outlasts your civilization 2000 years you probably overbuilt” great line, but you know what? It’d be nice for a change if some of our infrastructure was overbuilt.
Joke's on them, our infrastructure is built to end our civilization + life on earth. Check mate ♟️.
@@aolanaknilram7745 no
That sounds like a nice thing to have until you consider that you would have to pay way more taxes in order for stuff to be overbuild....
“Yeah just make it good enough to hold together for 5 minutes, then we them sell glue” I like the Roman guy better than that dude who forgets his name
@@tlf4354 if the politicians didnt steal so much off the top im sure the billions we already put into it would be plenty
I could listen to Neil talk about random subjects all day. He's so knowledgeable yet funny at the same time so it isn't painful or dull to listen to.
Then he would enjoy a conversation with you because he could speak the entire time
Good thing you don't mind listening to him talk, because you'd never get a word out without him interrupting you
On the rare occasion, he is even right, mostly by mistake.
@Mike Mondano Do you have brain damage? You've commented at least 4 separate times on this video, bashing Tyson for no apparent reason.
Unless you are an engineer listening to an astrologist talk about and get things wrong on topics outside of his field. He has above average intelligence, but his ego is disproportionately larger.
I've never given much thought to water tower, but watching these two geek out on them was awesome. I love watching people geek out on their favorite obscure subjects!
seeing two smart men contemplate the concept of emergency resevoirs of water made me want to pull my hair out- it was absolutely mind numbing to see people get to confused over such a simple object- it goes to show you how often people are without modern luxuries like running water and electricity- the resevoirs that are for emergencies seem to perplex them.
Anyone: "Water towe-" Neil Tyson: *"Are you threatening me, master Jedi?"*
The senate will decide your fate
Platypus Music You forgot the simple fact that: *I Am The Senate*
Platypus Music uh
Conscious Subconsciousness Not yet
Nice
As an engineers major, now having the course fluid dynamics, this makes me so happy. Just finished the chapter of head pressure (water at a height, gives a pressure.)
Water's very sticky tho that must make a difference
2.31, .433
I also had a chapter in head pressure… from your wife! Oh!
So, therefore, you know that Neil is wrong in his explanation, right?
@@davidevans3223 water is not sticky its slimy and thin
i'm always amazed when the sink works when the power's out
This just came up in my feed for some reason so I decided I'd watch the first few seconds to see what it was about and watched the whole thing. It was funny, entertaining and I learned things that I didn't know. Thank you .
5:20 anyone notice he pulled an apple out of the crevice of the chair? LOLLLL
lol lol lol!!! I said to myself, did he just pull an apple from the chair?!
yeahhhh
Holy shit im rolling on the floor 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
It was in his left hand at the beginning of the video.
Did you notice the fake bites, fake chews, and he never swallow...what a bad actor
"I never wash my hands" This quote has not aged well, and right now it's likely you won't either.
Toxic Schiz I was scrolling the comments to see if anyone has made that joke yet 😂😂
drsnoggle um yes it is. Gotta have a sense of humor about things
drsnoggle hey dude I have covid. I understand it
I meant tested. Miss spoke. But trust me I understand this
drsnoggle understand what this virus is. Look dude if you can’t have a little sense of humor about this than you’re living in fear. Life is crazy and crazy scary. You gotta try to laugh your way through it. Don’t try to tell me something isn’t funny if I think it is. There’s no point in all that. It honestly makes you look weak and you want to control the narrative. Man that ain’t how this works. I get this virus is very dangerous. Trust me I understand how dangerous this is. You don’t know my life and my history so you can’t judge me on that but homie I’m just tryin to laugh through. Just take it at face value
I had a science teacher in jr. high like this. After the first 6 weeks or so, students quit trying to get him off subject because it wasn't much of a challenge.
I remember Mr Barney, my high school physics teacher. Me and this German exchange student whose name I don't remember would always sidetrack him! He promised to do his "famous molecule dance" at some school event but he was sick that day so we never got to see it...
In my high school senior year of 1975-76, our very own Indiana Hoosiers were working their way through the last undefeated NCAA men's basketball title. This gave us a great way to distract our Civics teacher, Mr. Goffinet (RIP), who, like everyone in Indiana, was a basketball lover. Finally, IU won the title and we got down to civics.
Rome was using a Roman era aqueduct system in it’s water supply up until 1945 I believe. There were a lot of over-head tanks used for gravity water in rural Australia ; often filled by windmills. I heard one story about a farmer who was filling his over-head tanks without a pump ; he had a tank that could be sealed airtight, (over-head) , he then hooked up a vacuum cleaner and created a modest vacuum , that’s all it took to suck the water up into the tank. Cheers from Oz , I watch a lot of your clips , you sound like a very good teacher. 😮
You can accomplish anything given enough time and money however...I believe as described, without any changes, you have heard a simple urban myth.
Must have been a very low tank or a very strong vacuum cleaner.
I have m3asured a vacuum cleaner, they produce about -2 PSI, and that will only lift water about 1.5 metres (5 feet) high.
not gonna lie... I thought he was going to say there was some kind of weird conspiracy with water towers when I clicked on it... but this video was super interesting and I loved it!!
Didn't you hear? They were part of the Martian Invasion in 1938 that got covered up by Orson Welles. _And they're still there._
where is danny black ,lol, I thought the same thing 😂
This is the only reason I clicked it.
NelC Perfectly disguised as water towers: at night, their foundations disappear and they hover in place.
Me too. I was like what is wrong with them now... lol.
It's amazing how many towns are named after their water tower
you win
Yes
Mitch?
I love you
Score!
I drove overnight out of Phoenix on I-60, pulling over to sleep on the side of the road near Socorro New Mexico. When I woke up I was surrounded by the VLA (Very Large Array) which are four-story tall satellite dishes spread out over a moonscape valley. It was as if THEY had landed on the planet while I was asleep! It was surreal.
Cool awakening....
Neil is a fun person, I would have not thought that he can relax so much. He, to my experience has always been more stiff. Thank you for showing this side.
Tyson is a born educator. He could make paint drying interesting
LobsterProductions paint drying is interesting you just have to inhale
He actually could! 🤣
I can already imagine him talking what happens to the paint, and how universe is involved in the process :D
And don’t get him started on why looking dry doesn’t mean it’s actually dry
@@linkunliu2118 don't get him started on things that seem dry but are not actually dry. Like concrete. Did you know that concrete is never fully dry? There is still water inside the concrete on all buildings, which is why when our sun turns into a red giant, and everything starts heating up to unimaginable levels here on earth, every concrete building will literally turn into powder and collapse!
Listening to Neil get so hype about water towers makes my year.
It's like finally getting to share that kind of excitement with someone who actually gets it. Like I get super stoked over this stuff, and hardly find others irl that are the same.
@@MD-bf2ce ll lol p pop
Thats a low bar
@@HazeAero wasn’t the best year, ngl
*Hyped
Neil is one of my favorite people. I've never seen anyone that could break down a complicated concept so easily, into something that can be understood by common folks.
He’s like the Bob Dylan of Science.
Carl Sagan. I appreciate Neil, but his Cosmos was a far cry from Sagans
OMG, I am 61 years and just found you. Science has always held me but is very different for me to visualize. Your explain so very clearly. Your never getting away.
*I DIDN’T GET THERE YET* 2:58 😂😂
E Wild the single blackest moment in NDT history.
SORRY!
Tyson talks like I do when I am drunk, except he's smart.
Tyson's so smart, he talks better than I do when he's drunk and I'm sober.
he's not
convex earth lol holy shit yall outdone yourselves this time fuck
you touch people too much too
is he smart?
Very interesting. Thank you!! This adds to all I already knew about Water towers specifically - the opening of the show Petticoat Junction.
Yes, because in those days railroads needed regular supplies of good quality water for the steam locomotives. Moving to Diesel Electric locomotives meant that railroads could get rid of a lot of the infrastructure and expenses associated with the Water Supply Department, water towers, pumps, chemicals to balance the water and operators to tend to the water supply and keep the water flowing and balanced correctly and in particular in North America, to keep the water in the tank from freezing.
These guys are so inspiring. I want to bring science into as many avenues as I can handle. Thanks mans
What do you mean?
Rome may have over engineered, but the glory that is Rome will be remembered as they intended.
Of course, Rome didn't expect to end...from their perspective, they fully intended to rule forever, so from that viewpoint (however misguided it may be) it was engineered just about perfectly.
Andrew doesn't know the definition of glory \o/
aussiebloke609 no govt thinks they will end until they approach the end
What did the Romans ever do for us?
Rome didn't over engineer. They made their concrete with volcanic ash, which caused it to be much stronger than our concrete.
This man could talk about his lettuce & tomato sandwich & it would be interesting.
247tubefan for you bc you’re a dumbass
No need for that man. ^
It would be more interesting with bacon.
I agree wholeheartedly
I know. Every time I see Neil talking about whatever I kind of want to go see something else but I just can´t.
Brilliant! I had no idea..this was very interesting. Thank you!👍
Neil , Rochester , NY has an ancient Water System going back almost 150 years . Feeds water by Gravity From Hemlock and Canadice Lakes . When you grow up with that in your backyard it is easy to forget how hard People work to move Water in other Places . Thank you for the Video .
5:34 "I NEVER WASH MY HANDS!" That did not age well at all.
Same thought! Time made that offensive 😂
That did not age well from the moment he spoke those words. Ewwwwww.
At all! 😅🤣
Bahahaha
darnit you beat m to it by 2 whole months
@2:59 "...I didn't get there yet, I didn't get there yet!" "Sorry." The animation at this moment 😂😂😂
lnetz77 exactly 😁😁
lnetz77 My wife just asked why I laughed. 😄
Joe Cope aww 😊 swear most people leave the animation alone if there's bloopers 😁 the attention to detail they have.
Lol this had me giggling!
Two of my absolute favorite minds. Love you guys
Are you joking
I'm only now getting back into neil's awesome work and damn I forgot how PEAK of a teacher he is, explains things amazingly even for people who have 0 knowledge in the subject, funny, down to earth (pun in tended) guy. damn. why can we have more niels in schools?
What PEAK ?
@@brianpeters5555 I mean he's like the best at being a teacher, peak = extremely high level
He’s a hack. Decently smart but very egotistical…
teaching and what Neil does are very different things. Teaching involves communicating to each individual the manner in which they learn the best- the best teachers know how to communicate to a wide range of people- Neil...doesn't have that quality- he has one mode: speak over everyone and go on random tangents. He's a story telling pokemon.
why? because both the pay AND the situations in schools are $h!t that's why.
When u have a person with a love for knowledge it makes u wanna learn. I can listen to this guy drop knowledge on me for days.
Too bad your fooled by his blathering your iq must be low
@@VG-rj8pn ironic that you should mention iq, yet you dont even know the difference between your and you're. Also, *your* sentence is lacking even the most basic of punctuation. *Your* iq must be low.
Every toilet has a little water tower
dude.... my balls.
And they exist for exactly the same reason - to give a greater water pressure, and therefore mass flow, to wash the bowl clean each time.
holy SHIT you're right. And there's even a floatation device to regulate the valve.
Your bladder is a water tower.
MEGATON- 😂😂😂.....😂😂
You are two of my favorite geeky guys. Love you!!! ❤️🥰❤️
Nice I enjoy that information thank you here from NYC
1:29 "As long you have gravity" I think if you lose gravity, you have bigger problems than not getting water...
Arkaid D Well, he's an astrophysicist so alot of the time you don't have gravity.
To be fair, there is always gravity, even in space.
The Brutal Bros *as long as the tower is resisting gravity*
There is no gravity, only density and buoyancy.
Dreams x92 What do you mean?
Universe: Whatchu doing? Me: Nothing, just sitting here learning about water towers for absolutely no reason at all.
Relatable.
But if it exists, it has a reason. ;)
Great video that I plan on using for my Water Supply class in Fire Tech I. I'm so thankful for people like Dr. Tyson who are so good at explaining science. In some cases roof top water towers may be used to assist water pressure and supply in fire sprinkler systems.
It's not very scaleable because it depends on industrial usage but my city has just shy of 29k people and roughly 6k water service connections (including businesses, factories and multi family apartments that count as one connection). I work at the water treatment facility, we make, on average 5.5 million gallons of water in a 24hr period. If our main storage reservoir is at the same level/height as the night before that means the city used that whole 5.5mil. When your students open 5 or 8 hydrants, depending on their areas storage capacity and time of day you can run into pressure issues real quick, we use MGD (million gallons per day) because it takes us the whole day, where as you guys think in gpm or total gallons used. We monitor momentary usage as well and for several fires that I've seen they've used as much if not more than the city was at the time!
I love his teaching style.
5:25 did he just pick out an APPLE from behind the cushion and ate it??
indieair thank you I was looking if anyone was going to mentioned that 🍎
I was in shock after he did it hahahaha
Hahaha that's cool
...yes. He's just that cool. 😎
"Ooh, an apple!"
"If your buildings out live your civilization by 2000 years you might have over built by just a bit" lol
The British have houses that are 2-300 yrs old still in use.
@@hotrodray6802 YEP.. My grans house was built in 1895..Lanarkshire Scotland
@@hotrodray6802 my aunt's house in Wisconsin was built in 1845. Rock foundation with brick overlay. Very sound house that has been maintained.
@@hotrodray6802 2000 years and a couple hundred years is a rather large difference lol.
HotRod Ray isn’t that only because of a law?
My favourite bit was when he fished an apple core out of the couch and started eating it like that was a completely normal thing to do.
This is the one 😂
he's hot and I'm shameless🧃
I like how Neil just reaches down, pulls an apple out of his seat cushion, and proceeds to go to work on it. Dude definitely is not a germaphobe.
Maybe he keeps his chair _really_ clean.
Most scientists and doctors are not germaphobes
and then we got hit by covid.
I rode the subway in Manhattan for 7 years. My immune system is a mini-boss.
5:25 Chair apple... nice
Lol
David P Ha! Ya! Good eye. It was half eaten with all that lint or whatever else was on that couch!
It's iChair
The chair that he is sitting on appears to be made of alcantara, otherwise known as synthetic suede. This material not only repels water, but due to it's somewhat elastic nature, it does not give off lint. Thus you could technically put a food item on it and you wouldn't have to worry about getting gunk or anything else on it. i could see the couch collect a little bit of dirt if it isn't -or hasn't been- cleaned, but you could rid the couch of this simply with a stroke of the back of your fingers a few times. Still, i digress.
The moment where NdT performs a magic trick and makes the apple disappear: 2:27 (hint: he hid it under his leg).
Neil loves him some water towers 👌🏼
Michael Ortega 💦💦💦
*warter*
him? or them?
Michael Ortega He's sorta wrong though, just because the bands are evenly spaced doesn't mean it's engineered poorly, the top portion could be over engineered. Still an engineering mistake though.
Garrett Lang how?
Very interesting. I like Neil. I always learn something new. I’m going to look at our water tower, now, with new interest.
I've learnt many things today and that's make happy. Thank you👏👏👏
That "I never wash my hands" hits different in 2021.
Tyson is like one of those friends that can't quit touching you when they're saying something
Human Resources oh you’re one of those dudes
@Human Resources bi curious?
Human Resources you seem like a bad friend
@@carterwilliams4058 Not wanting others to touch you is being a bad friend?
@@birddaddydetta no ill intent interaction being responded with a rude and insulting response is not just bad friend, it's bad person
Charlotte NC, Elizabeth…gorgeous engineering and construction water tower …central to the neighborhood development.
Good stuff to teach, I did know all this but fun to watch
Neil just pulled a random Apple core from the couch. SCIENCE!
He was eating the apple at the beginning of the video
That's the same apple he put in there at 2:27
I hope it's really clean between those cushions.
eww it's now a sofa apple
Jeremy Mack 😂
Is it just me or was the Tyson explaining common sense with the other guy getting his mind blown
bogen broom are you hurt or something I keep seeing you in comments
Lol yea I thought he was going to start criticizing water tower design but they instead described something my dad took 35 seconds to tell me about when I was 6
@Christoph Peters I mean, its great if hes fun to listen to, but its also nice to learn.
Common sense is really just when everyone can understand simple things ease. I dont think the science between water towers is common sense lol but it is simple to learn
Hype man gotta hype
Teaching with lots of humor, amazing.
I have always wondered about water towers. Thanks.
We got stuff here falling down built 10 years ago.
the Allies won ww2 what else did you expect
I thought that was only us in Russia. But I guess weather is a big part of it
Gucci Damn if only Germans won we’d have their brilliant German engineering standard lmao
Its called job security
monetary evil and greed..
Neil should do more engineering videos like this
dillmon1 But he is an astronomer, not an engineer.
K. -Ben, StarTalk Video Producer
@StarTalk I don't get it. What about him?
Agreed! Engineering is all based in physics, and everyone encounters engineering on a daily basis, so it’s the perfect opportunity for some serious learning!
He's a physicist. Engineering is physics applied.
Just enjoy learning something new everyday.
"As long as you have gravity". Love it!
If Neil was your dad and you lived with him, every question would get a fantastical 45 minute answer. "Dad, did I leave my backpack in the car?" "Actually, the backpack is everywhere and nowhere... (3 minutes) ... schrodingers law says noone can know.. (5 minutes later).. the stars that formed billions of years ago to make the stuff that made zippers.... (2 minutes later)... the way our minds compartmentalize whats worth remembering.... (9 minutes later)... satellite signals that can travel as far as Saturn..... (19 minutes later).. yeah the keys are on the counter.
When I clicked Read more, I was expecting a wall of text.
LOL!
Hilarious man! Still I bet he’s a great dad! Don’t know how I know that he just seems like!
Shane Carrigan I'm missing 7 Minutes of reply.. and why the hell did it go from a backpack to keys? I MUST KNOWWWW
Shane Carrigan 😂😂😂😂😂
Never stop learning something new everyday! Woof, I'm a Plumber and just learned something new. The band structure on water towers and the reservoir to the 6 floor differential just bugged me out a little! Love it!
Well, just know that his explanation is wrong.
If you're a plumber you should know about head pressure.
Heck ya I’m a plumber too
Isnt head presurre common knowledge ?
woof?
This was a great video. Showing my kids!!
Ok guys. Yall had me hooked with Neil Tyson. Subscribed, liked and commenting. Have an amazing Memorial Day Weekend yall!!!!!!
I like how Neil is both smart but also knows how to talk like he's having a normal freaking conversation. Most people on this side of intelligent tend to lack social skills or talk like a freaking robot; case and point; Richard Dawkins.
You should watch some videos of a much younger Richard Dawkins teaching kids about biology etc. he is really lovely. I think he’s a bit cranky now he’s older. Neil will be too. Ha!
@@harryscarry6064 I don't think I can take Dawkins seriously after The Selfish Gene, lol.
@@ericm5315 Why?
He cuts off the other guy multiple times. People love to hear him talk so they don't realize how ego centric he is. If the other guy starts talking he talks louder and continuous his sentences.
It's simply because you aren't educated enough, in order to understand something well you need to understand the whole complexity of it, I'm not attacking you ofc, i just say hen you want to learn some go deep into it like use books, and not just go on Google or KZhead because they give a superficial explanations all the time
"YOU OVERBUILT"
Better than the alternative, Neil. Guess you're not an engineer :D
mspenrice overbuilding is under-engineering. It takes skill to engineer down to a reasonable cost.
No, it's just the answer chosen by skilled engineers, whose masters obviously much have thought the cost was worth it otherwise they wouldn't have put up the money to build those works in the first place (in an age where credit and shareholding was much less of a thing), in order to compensate for the limitations of the primitive technologies they had available. And as those works still stand, some of them in operable condition, I think they did a perfectly fine job. We can look at those things now and think "wow, they really just brute forced this and threw huge amounts of material at the job instead of finessing it", but when you're building in an age without pre-stressed steel-reinforced concrete available to you, or any kind of computer design, steel wire suspension, power-assisted pile driving machinery, etc, you quickly reach a limit where the stuff you're using just isn't strong enough without overbuilding. And they must frequently have worked near the bleeding edge of what was and wasn't sufficient amounts of stonework to last "for all time", given how many things have actually fallen down and become ruins in-between. We just see the most heavily overspec survivors.
Tim White1 month ago"YOU OVERBUILT" Silly Romans probably weren't calculating that their civilization would only last a couple of hundred more years. I bet they were planning on remaining around a lot longer. They all do, same with us now but who really knows?
+dormantrabbits Well, I mean, it kind of depends on how cheap the construction costs were to begin with. If, in your current economic climate, the material and labour costs are so silly cheap, then it really doesn't matter, so you might as well overbuild. ...and then we remember - oh, wait - that the Romans had slavery. (Mostly of the nearby Slavic peoples of Eastern Europe, which is actually where we get the word "slave" from. The Slavs were the Roman's slaves.) So, another way to look at it, in the historical context, is that all that overbuilding is actually a sign of just how little regard they had for their slaves, quarrying up the stone and building the aqueducts. All that slavery made it so cheap and its construction difficulties "not your problem", no-one gave any shits about "reducing costs" or efficiency - and they happily overbuilt, as it was the slaves who were really paying all the costs here. (Plus, yes, everything mspenrice said about how their construction technology was also vastly more crude, so they couldn't be that precise to begin with anyway and "overbuilding" is the simple way to make sure things definitely stay up, no matter what. That must definitely factor into it all too.)
Fully depreciated, still in use
Nice to hear intelligent conversation coming from my peeps.
Chuck thought he did something there for a second. "as long as you have gravity." Thank you, Chuck. Hopefully gravity will just keep doing its thing so we can have water, yes.
of course niel had to correct him lmao.
@@obamacare4262 Neil*
"as long as water is heavier than air*"
If “chuck” is the dude on the right he’s an idiot.
"If your buildings outlive your civilizations...you overbuilt" 5:18 😂😂
Better to overbuild than have your buildings and infrastructure fail and end your civilization.
I love water towers AND Neil Tyson, so there's no better combo for me than this video
Just remember that things like the old Roman structures have had a lot of work put into them to preserve them for historical purposes. In addition you need to consider the scale of usage/ stress put on the structures in question. Not to mention the fact that Italy has very good conditions for not degrading structures as quick.
This is important. Another important thing is that back then most structures were a lot simpler then they are today. I think just the adition of stuff like Electricity in almost every building already adds a lot of complexity because you somehow have to wire it through the entire building, while still hiding it in the walls and making sure nothing like water can accidentally get in. So it's much more complicated to build something nowadays then it used to be but it is easier.
@@user-bt8xr5si9y To a degree maybe, but the biggest factors is how Italy tends to stay warm enough to prevent freezing. Water gets in the cracks and as it freezes it expands damaging the structure. In the case of something like roads you would have to consider the amount of wear and tear a modern day road gets from vehicles driving on it. Not to mention the not even comparable difference in just how many people use the infrastructure today
Like to point out that Italy gets regular earthquakes, though. Roman engineering was spectacular.
Yes people like to cite old structures and marvel at how they're still there after thousands of years etc. But in reality what's still there are just ruins, and even those wouldn't be there without the constant preservation efforts throughout those thousands of years.
@@allosaurusfragilis7782and their concrete, which we can't replicate is stronger than anything we can manufacture, even with all the technology of today. Crazy
He was talking about re-enforcing hoops. A cool thing about the forces they control is that the stresses are called Hoope stress. Named not because of the hoop, but after the scientist that defines the stresses and came up with the equation to calculate them.
Lol that's a funny coincidence. It's like it was his calling.
I don’t think this is actually true. I’ve always seen it written “hoop stress”, and I’ve never heard of Mr Hoope. Google apparently hasn’t either.
Land Speeder headass
this is fascinating and sounds completely MADE UP 🤣 this is the kind of comment I always try to troll people with, well done sir
Hoop stress is exactly the correct term. There ws no Mr Hoope. I used to design reservoirs and water towers, among other things Hoop stress is the pheripheral tensile stress which exists within a circular watertank or reservoir wall.
❤️ his joy is contagious
Not A Theist what is joy?
Cool Dude I just remembered I have video speed set to 1.5... try it- there is joy😊
Not A Theist he is a really good actor!!!
Not A Theist kzhead.info/sun/lqWdoNSubJaXfI0/bejne.html
lookingatliers eyes wide shut I think his acting skills are average at best. kzhead.info/sun/eZd9nLKSiXOioKs/bejne.html
Who know such a subject could be so profoundly interesting?! 🤔🤯🤤
If I could hangout with Neil for a day I'd learn more in that 24 hours than I've learned in the past 24 years lol absolutely brilliant ✌️
As a civil engineer I came here thinking I was going to hear Neil complaining about water towers and I wanted to see what his problem was, let alone his solution! Instead I got him telling me all the basic things I already know (I'd better, in this line of work!) but he's just so easy to listen to I watched the whole video anyway!
Haha yeah same here
same I thought he hated them or something lol
My only issue is that he's talking about the "weight" of water, which is a downward force relative to the diameter and height of the tower. What's actually important is the pressure which is only related to the height of the water and is wat causes the hoop stress in the vessel. The weight is acting downwards, the pressure is acting outwards, which I think is an important distinction he missed.
Engineers unite lol
Farm born and raised, I knew why the concrete stave and the wooden silos had the hoops closer together at the bottom before I was 10. I was here at the end as well.
Another point is pumps run much better at the same speed, and on for long times (not switching on and off), so you can run the pump filling the water tower at a continuous low speed, leading to better efficiency and less maintenance
A simple yet interesting piece of knowledge to have ✨ might even come in handy one day.
Wow this is so clear. 💜
4:15 Neil's face lol
heretic124 reminds me of one of them Garry's mod TF 2 faces.
it looks like neil farted and the other guy just smells it
meme worthy
When he realized he was trying to touch him the whole video and he admits he doesn't wash his hands. Lol
That face screams: " I farted in your coffee and you didn't notice."
*"If your structures outlive your civilization. Then you over built them."*
I can listen to him 24/7.
Very interesting. You both work so well together. Great chemistry. I learned a lot.
"If your infrastructure outlives the fall of your civilization by 2,000 years, you overbuilt." The first reasonable perspective on "We don't build things like the Romans anymore" that I've heard in a long time.
I disagree on the overbuilt part. They had the, "If you're gonna do something do it right." attitude.
It's hard not to overbuild if all you have is stone and cement. They did have good cement, better than anything we have now.
@Bruno Pereira Imagine Roman architecture and engineering trying to deal with the vehicles and loads of people of present day... Yeah, Roman engineers would be like any other. If anything, blame the politicians that set their budget with what to work with.
@Bruno Pereira and what exactly is an "Ancient Solution" do you think. What would make them any different from modern engineers?
@Bruno Pereira engineering is not about feeling. Its very logical and math based. The basics of engineering dont magically change or worsen over time. In fact the engineering knowledge and tools we have today are far far more advanced than then. What i mean to say is no, ancient engineers weren't magically talented and had super secret techniques that we dont know. They were and are just as smart as our modern engineers.
In Finland we have these huge concrete cone-shaped water towers that look like giant mushrooms usually on top of the highest points in town. The cone shape helps keep the water level variation to a minimum as well as distributes the weight of the water more evenly.
water towers in Finland are like works of art.
We have the same type in Ireland. I can see one on the horizon from our house.
Creates more water pressure.
shaped like a concrete martini glass, nearly all the volume is at the top
Yep. We also have those in Denmark.
That is totally cool Neil. Damn i wish i had you as my science teacher when i was at school. you might have kept my interest in the subject.
Without watching this video, I doubt you remember what this was about. your teachers did a great job, Neil is a celebrity not a teacher.
I never thought I'd actually learn something about water towers
In certain applications, water towers are used to alleviate rapid changes in pressure, like a capacitor in an electrical circuit or a damper in a spring-mass-damper system. For example, when a valve is closed, it creates a back pressure, and rather than travel through that incompressible fluid until it breaks something, water towers send the pressure wave to dissipate against gravity.
"If your structure outlasts your civilization more than two thousand years you probably overbuilt" - amazing
And wrong. It implies civilisations expect their downfall when building things. Any civilisation builds to last, in the modern world, its simply cheaper to build temporary and the rate of advancement 2000 years later is much faster. And in the Roman's case, we are fortunate they did, otherwise we wouldn't have many great buildings that exist today, some even still lived in, like the Roman's planned.
Hilarious! 😅 They for sure, overbuilt!
Thought that line was great, but Rome expected to last forever
Tell the Egyptians!
@@unbanned6175 to be fair it was kinda a joke
Wow! Now I'm a GENIUS after listening to this!
Never thought Id be so excited about water towers. Pretty neat