How fast is it? Or rather, how fast could a river, including under current, naturally/reasonably get?
2007-11-20 13:53:14 · 3 answers · asked by backslashyourasterix 2 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Geography
The Niagara River has over 150,000 litres per second travel past Niagara Falls. If you want to find the "fastest" river, look for the highest water fall and then calculate the height multiplied byt the force of gravity (9.8 m/s) to find the "speed".
2007-11-21 17:24:15 · answer #1 · answered by Silverhorn 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Not easy to answer, since flow varies wildly with the amount of water, steepness of the turrain, etc. A perfectly calm wide river flowing a 2-3 miles per hour can turn into a raging torrent if funneled in to a rockwalled canyon after flowing down hill a bit from the wide outlet.
Your best estimation method would be to look up the times from drop in to lift out for chartered float trips on fast rivers like the Colorado in the Grand Canyon and the Snake. eSearch 'river running' or look up olympic kayak trials.
With almost no basis but rough guessing, I would say that the fast water line of a smooth fast water is easily 15-20 miles per hour (my touring speed on a bike used to be 16 mph) and may reach 30 (as fast as I could ride a bike on level ground for a short distance)
http://hypertextbook.com/facts/2006/NervanaGaballa.shtml
2007-11-20 16:23:47 · answer #2 · answered by Mike1942f 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The Atrato river in Colombia is reported to be the fastest flowing river in the world, emptying 4900 cubic meters of water into the Caribbean every second.
2007-11-20 21:18:29 · answer #3 · answered by neni 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋