Big black balls will save us all

[Anonymous No.7463546]

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2015/08/11/431670483/la-rolls-out-water-saving-shade-balls

Pretty cool tbh

[Anonymous No.7463561]

>>7463546
This is so simple I'm surprised nobody has done it before. Hopefully more stuff like this is in development right now to make our world a better place. Thank you OP

[Anonymous No.7463574]

>>7463546

That is neat, but it's not going to work out since the usage of water is greater than the total amount of water coming in through rain, rivers, snowmelt, etc.

Desalination is the answer if people want to continue living there. Or have those water conservation suits from Dune and then recycle the water from the bodies of dead people.

[Anonymous No.7463575]

>>7463561
People have done it before, because I remember pics from a year or two ago showing the same thing on a different reservoir. Apparently they were doing it back in 2008 too. It is a good solution.

[Anonymous No.7463687]

>>7463574
Or we could just increase the amount of rain. It's by far the cheapest option because global warming is already taking care of it; all we have to do is carry on with normal day to day life.

[H No.7463691]

>>7463546
SHAVE BALLS

[Anonymous No.7463734]

>>7463546
why wouldn't they be white to reflect heat away from the water and keep the balls themselves cooler?

and

>> all that BPA

[Anonymous No.7463736]

>>7463546
>bromate
Why are they black though? That's gonna heat up the water.

[Anonymous No.7463739]

>>7463736
>>7463734

Why are you being so racist?

[Anonymous No.7463764]

>fucking with the water cycle
This will end well.

[Anonymous No.7463770]

>>7463561
It's a really old idea, just not on this scale.

It's really common in industrial and scientific settings where you need to keep a liquid bath from causing too many fumes or evaporating too quickly

pic related, it's how we manage evaporation in the water baths in our lab

i took a couple industrial hygiene classes and they talked about using these for things like acid baths

[Anonymous No.7463771]

>>7463734
>>7463736
because black saves stuff and white fucks it up. It's science.

[Anonymous No.7463821]

>>7463687
>>7463574
It has always been a place where long droughts hit from time to time, as a matter of shifting wind patterns. It's doubtful that global warming would be either the cause or solution.

They just need to get through it with whatever temporary measures until the rain starts falling again, like cutting back on wasteful practices and prioritizing high-value crops and long-term assets (like orchards), while choosing to give up some low-value, water-intensive crops (like rice).

They still have desalination plants from their last long drought. They started construction during the drought, which ended before the construction did, so they were never used, and fell into disrepair so they haven't been useful in this drought. These jokers seem all set to do it again.

This is a bad time to invest in desalination. In ten years or so, we should have graphene (or other 2d nanotech) filters worked out, which will dramatically change the cost of desalination. This is an atom-thick filter with holes the right size to only let water through, so it flows quickly with even a slight pressure. We're just sorting out the manufacturing process now. It should be extremely cheap and energy efficient, almost free after you pump the water.

[Anonymous No.7463841]

>>7463736
holy mom science batman

[Anonymous No.7463847]

>>7463736
>Why are they black though? That's gonna heat up the water.
My understanding is that the primary purpose is to prevent UV light from causing chemical reactions making the chlorinated water carcinogenic, so absorbing light rather than bouncing any of it down is important.

However, they don't just have them floating halfway in the water. They throw enough in to have several layers, with the top layers lifted entirely out of the water by the lower layers. The top balls will get hot and the air will carry that heat away, with little transmitted down to the water.

So here's the real story:
>The EPA mandates that all reservoirs be covered, but because tarps can be expensive and metal coverings can take too long to install, shade balls — at least in Los Angeles — are becoming a preferred method.
>"...it's meeting the minimum standards..."

Basically, it does part of the job of a tarp or metal cover, while being somewhat cheaper, and they decided that's good enough.

[Anonymous No.7463854]

>>7463770
explain the rationale please

[Anonymous No.7463916]

>>7463734
>why wouldn't they be white
because in industrially produced color the actual perceived color doesn't mean shit when it comes to how much is reflected/absorbed
you can finetune those things during production

[Anonymous No.7463917]

>>7463916
>the actual perceived color doesn't mean shit when it comes to how much is reflected/absorbed
Thanks for playing, but when you start barking, people on the internet do know you're a dog.

[Anonymous No.7464053]

>>7463841
>Mom science
It's a fact that black stuff gets hotter in the sun. I'm not saying that the temperature of the lake will actually rise, but it might.

[Anonymous No.7464063]

>>7463546

That's a big FUCK YOU to going green though.

>let's fill the world with non-ecologically correct plastic balls

Nice idea.

[Anonymous No.7464065]

LA should have spent the money building solar panels over the Reservoir. They should be building solar panels all over California to cover reservoirs, canals, aqueducts, and rivers.

[Anonymous No.7464068]

>>7464053
The surface of the balls will probably heat up more than if they were white. But the balls are thin plastic with just about no mass, and I'm sure they won't heat the reservoir by any appreciable amount.

[Anonymous No.7464072]

>>7464065
Parking lots, man. Walking through a socal parking lot is bad enough with the sun coming down, but then you've got that 150 degree F heat coming back up at you off the asphalt. I think they ought to just build solar panels above the parking lots and then you can park in the shade beneath them.

[Anonymous No.7464088]

>>7463854
It reduces the surface area exposed to the atmosphere.

[Anonymous No.7464090]

>>7464068
>But the balls are thin with just about no mass
Irrelevant, the heat would quickly transfer to the water.

[Anonymous No.7464093]

>>7464072
this is the proper use of PV solar panels. In widely distributed "Co Generation" locations. PV Solar doesn't gain anything being concentrated in a single large installation. So you should just have it everywhere where you can use the panels for shade. Dump the power into the grid during normal operations. Then have the switch to powering critical things locally when black outs happen.

[Anonymous No.7464154]

>>7464090
where the heat goes isn't the issue, it's that they're lowering the average albedo of the area which traps more heat...

[Anonymous No.7464192]

>>7464154
heat doesn't matter

it'll be a slightly warmer pond, big fucking whoop.

[Anonymous No.7464206]

>>7463847
>However, they don't just have them floating halfway in the water. They throw enough in to have several layers, with the top layers lifted entirely out of the water by the lower layers
Ah, then it won't matter if they are black for the water. But I guess you're gonna get some good thermals over there, meaning birds will flock, meaning you'll get a ton of bird poop in the water. Lol. Just kidding, but you might...

[Anonymous No.7464223]

>>7464093
>PV Solar doesn't gain anything being concentrated in a single large installation.
Simplicity of installation. Economy of scale.

There are costs, but also benefits to solar farms.

Solar parking shades are pretty nice, though.

[Anonymous No.7464228]

>>7463546

[Anonymous No.7464235]

whats that water uesed for doesnt seem to be a big area anyway
cant they just fill it with more water?

[Anonymous No.7464303]

>>7464235
It's a reservoir for prepared, clean, chlorinated tap water.

They've got to hold it somewhere to have a buffer between production and consumption.

[Anonymous No.7464343]

White is the strongest reflector of light. Black is the strongest radiator of light. Since heat is emitted as infrared light, black bodies are the strongest radiators of waste heat.

[Anonymous No.7464667]

>>7463546

Thus making a giant deathtrap. Nice.

[Anonymous No.7464703]

The balls aren't white because you want to minimize reflectivity. The black color keeps the light out resulting in less algae growth and bromate formation.

do physics/math majors not understand practical problems?

[Anonymous No.7464889]

Dystopian as fuck. This is what overpopulation looks like.

>In other news, scientists have imagined to create GMO trees with black leaves. The added sunlight absorption means that trees can grow up to 0.05% faster. Experts believe that in 5 years all forests will be pitch black.

[Anonymous No.7464906]

>>7464889
Why would that be a bad thing? We need to be using science like that. There are all sorts of ways GMOs can work to our benefit.

[Anonymous No.7464908]

>>7464303

A reservoir doesn't hold treated water. A clearwell does.

Water goes from the reservoir to the treatment plant to a clearwell and then to distribution.

[Anonymous No.7465259]

>>7464703
black tshirts are better during the summer because white tshirts reflect radiant heat back into the body.

[Anonymous No.7465264]

>>7464908
Isn't this supposed to prevent chemical reactions resulting from sunlight on treated water?

[Anonymous No.7465267]

This is never going to work. This is like giving aspirin to cancer patients. California is Cancer

[Anonymous No.7465270]

>>7463546
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2015/08/12/black-balled-la-tries-spherical-scheme-to-block-evaporation-amid-drought/
>However, not everyone was so enthusiastic. Nathan Krekula, biologist and operations manager at Wisconsin Diagnostic Laboratory, warned, "I don’t believe that in the long run this provides a good strategy in protecting the water. I believe that this will increase evaporations due to a greater surface area as well as providing a great place for bacteria to have a nice environment to grow protected from UV light that kills it.

[Anonymous No.7465272]

>>7465264
yes. http://articles.latimes.com/2008/jun/10/local/me-balls10

this isn't new.

It's to prevent cancerous bromate.

[Anonymous No.7465278]

>>7464889
>10 years later
>New global warming research indicates that the subsequent massive drop in albedo due to all forests on earth turning black has increased global average temperatures by 15 degrees celsius
>In other news, 95% of herbivores extinct as gmo plants cannot digest in stomaches
oops our bad guys
we'll fix it, we swear, we will just gmo some new plants that breed super quick so we can get some new food out there. their surfaces also will reflect all light
:^)

[Anonymous No.7465288]

>>7464065
>LA should have spent the money building solar panels over the Reservoir.
In the npr piece they said it cost $250 million less to use the balls than to put a roof over the reservoir.

[Anonymous No.7465298]

>>7463847

>"We need you to do some science.... But we don't want to spend a lot if money."

[Anonymous No.7465349]

>>7465272
I was responding to someone who said that reservoirs don't hold treated water.

[Anonymous No.7465686]

>>7463546
Why are the balls black and not white? You'd think the greater albedo of white balls would further reduce evaporation. Does it let more light through and is worse at preventing algae growth?

[Anonymous No.7465689]

>>7465686
prevents UV formation of toxic bromine compounds

[Anonymous No.7465712]

>>7465686
Not to even mention that black balls are less likely to work in comparison to white balls.

[Anonymous No.7465733]

>>7465259
>using a comparison of bird plumage to correlate with cotton/polyester clothing

I knew /sci/ was full of google-fu retards but this is just pathetic.