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What's your favorite unbelievable fact? (reddthat.com)

submitted 22 hours ago by POTOOOOOOOO@reddthat.com to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

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[–] balsoft@lemmy.ml 5 points 5 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago)

Therefore a graduated cylinder that is 10m tall needs to resist the same amount of force as a dam 10m tall regardless of how much water is behind the dam. Even a thin sliver of water 1mm thick and 5m tall has the same force as a 5m lake behind the dam.

Technically only the pressures are equal, and the actual force will be linearly dependent on the area of the dam (or the surface area of the cylinder). That's why you can make a tall water tank with relatively thin walls, but an actual dam will have to be quite thicc to handle the tensile/compressive stress (depending on the shape of the dam).