Is it impossible for a river to flow uphill?

Question

I am doing research for a Speech in my College Speech 101 Class. Part of my speech includes talk about the Colorodo River. I recently was told that rivers do not (CANnot) initally flow uphill. Is this true? Or is it possible in some cases?

Answer 1

The trick to your question is the word "initially". Because of that word, the focus has to be at the point where the river starts to move. All water is initially powered by gravity and therefore must flow downhill INITIALLY. But once it picks up speed, water could flow uphill for a little bit.

Example: Ignore the river and assume you are sitting on a bicycle. Without pedaling or pushing off, how do you get it to move? By pointing it downhill. Once you are moving, though, you can coast uphill for a little bit.

Done.

Answer 2

The answer depends on the "scale of observation". If you look at the river as whole (say you were up in space or in a spy plane), then no, rivers cannot flow uphill. The force driving the flow of the river is gravity, which always acts in the same direction: toward the center of the Earth. The water can't flow toward the center of the Earth though, so it does the next best thing: flows downhill, down the steepest possible slope it can. If it meets an obstacle, it either flows around it, or makes a lake until the water level gets high enough to flow over or around the obstacle. If you zoom in and look at a small part of the river, however, there may be small areas that travel uphill a little way (eddies, whirlpools, or water swirling around in lakes). But, most of the water is flowing downhill and the uphill flow is just a small detour for the water involved. It all flows downhill, ultimately to the ocean or some other closed topographic depression (like inland seas).

Answer 3

Think about a roller coaster. Can it go up hill? A river can flow up hill under the same constraints as a roller coaster. As for "initially", this seems to be a trick question. If you want to have fun with it, when does a stream become a river? What if two streams meet to form a river. The streams may be uphill, but at the confluence, the river may flow uphill. Think outside of the box, that is what your speech prof is teaching you.

Answer 4

Listen me it is defintely impossible for a river to flow uphill. A river's source will always found in hill, mountain or any high rise natural area. One reason is because of gravity! Also all the maps that I have looked or studied I have always seen the contour lines radiating or lowering from central location meaning that there is mountain or hill present then often a river may be flowing from the area and emptying into the sea or ocean or into larger rivers and this represented by a blue line on a map.

Answer 5

I don't know about uphill, but instances have been recorded where natural disasters or phenomena have caused rivers to flow "backwards"- the most specific case I can think of is the 1811 earthquake in New Madrid, which was so powerful it caused the Mississippi to flow backwards temporarily. The Nile flows south to north, which is unusual, but I would assume it is still a downhill grade.

Answer 6

The Mississippi river flows uphill at certain points

Answer 7

Without any help from any other means, river, just like any other liquid will only flow in the direction to where it is lower than the source.

Answer 8

gravity makes the NILE river flow uphill, and its the longest river in the world, its all about the magnetic plates and the position on the earth

Answer 9

For a moment the current may go uphill due to eddys in the water, but not in a usual circumstance.

Answer 10

Can you hold a wet noodle upright ?