How does one avoid th River Police?

[waldronate]

Nobody expects the River Police! Their chief weapon is gravity. And topography.

Nobody expects the River Police! Their twin weapons are gravity, topography, and a fierce determination to enforce physical law.

AH, bugger.

[Coyotemax]

I spent a few mins (maybe 10) looking through google for something about water flowing uphill, and it's difficult to find something that isn't scientists testing in laboratories, optical illusion, or people arguing about it and referring to the fact that it can happen but not providing direct reference sources

Perhaps I'll try later when i'm looking for something to do that isn't time critical

(i'm not disbelieving, just annoyed at how long it's taking me to not find anything, usually i'm pretty good with the searches)

waldronate: brilliant!!

[Djekspek]

please .. please not the soft cushion!! I confess!

[Korash]

The only example that I can say I have seen, is the "reversing falls" off the Bay of Fundy. The reason that the water "goes uphill" is that at low tide the water level is sufficiently lower to allow a long stretch of the river to flow down hill before hitting the bay. When the tide comes back in, the water level of the bay is so much higher that the above mentioned stretch of river is now below the water level. The reversing part is when the tide comes in and flows up the soon to be submerged part of the river. It still follows the water flows down hill rule = The higher water of the bay flows into the lower river bed. A contradiction, but hey, I believe that is what is called a tidal bore (I might be wrong about the name though).

[Mark Oliva]

if your world has it's own rules, i think the call at that point is to ensure that those rules are followed consistently throughout that world. Consistent internal logic is important to the believability, which in my case at least, adds to the enjoyment.

I agree completely. On both points.

[philipstephen]

I think there is a river in Cambodia that flows in reverse during certain times of the year... flooding backflows it somehow... not sure the process...

ah Google, you answer my call again:

"The Tônlé Sap is a shallow lake in western Cambodia which is part of the Mekong River system. It is the largest lake of Southeast Asia and is fed by numerous streams. During the dry season it drains by the Tônlé Sap River southeast to the Mekong River. During the wet monsoon season of June to November, the high waters of the Mekong River reverse the flow of the Tônlé Sab River and increase the size of the lake from 2,600 to 10,400 sq km (about 1,000 to 4,020 sq mi). When the high waters of the Mekong River recede, the flow reverses. This natural mechanism provides a unique and important balance to the Mekong River down stream of the lake and ensures a flow of fresh water during the dry season into the Mekong delta in Vietnam which buffers the intrusion of salt water from the South China Sea into the rich agricultural lands of the delta."

[waldronate]

Rivers can flow in reverse, but typically only because the water at the mouth of the river becomes lower than the outside ocean, typically due to tides. Water then flows downhill from the ocean to the (now lower) river basin.

The only place that water will actually flow uphill against the flow of gravity is at something called the hydraulic jump. If you turn on the faucet at your sink and watch the water hit the bottom, you'll see the water form a flat disk around the place where the flow hits the basin. At the edges of the disk is a little jump where the flow gets slow enough to transition from the smooth laminar flow of the disk to the turbulent flow of the outer area. This phenomenon can be several feet high for large-volume, fast-flowing areas such as the outflow of a dam pillway. Other than that you'll not see water flow uphill in our world. You may see bits of water flow into a container that's lifted up until the water flows out at a higher level (a pump), but otherwise no.

[Juggernaut1981]

Waldronate> As a physics chemistry nerd...

Water can flow up ONLY if:
The water will move to a lower potential energy.
Will require minimal energy to go "up" first. (Minimal is massively subjective but unlikely to be found outside a kitchen sink or a syphon)
Will also result in the net increase of entropy.

Or in terms of something the size of a river... I wanna see the science because I doubt it will stack up.

[waldronate]

Or in terms of something the size of a river... I wanna see the science because I doubt it will stack up.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydraulic_jump has a lengthy discussion on the topic.

[Juggernaut1981]

Waldronate: All over the hydraulic jump concept. That's just dandy... but water flowing genuinely "up hill"... that's what I want to see people try explain the science to me for why their river goes where it does... and "Wizards done it" ain't a good answer. I might settle for "The God of Rivers did it, to show he awesome, and slightly chaotic"