How does one avoid th River Police?

[Coyotemax]

Excellent plan, it worked for me

And sometimes threads take on a life of their own and get away from you. Don't worry too much when it happens

[Imahilus]

There are even some unique cases in which water can flow uphill =P
Supposedly there are only three places in the world where this happens, though in the quick search I did I could not find their names (several youtube videos and mentions though).
Fact remains that nature has stuff far more strange than what we can imagine =)

[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).

[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"