ext_36231 ([identity profile] twic.myopenid.com) wrote in [personal profile] coalescent 2006-12-29 12:31 am (UTC)

emptying the Thames into something that size isn't going to make a noticeable difference to anything


Gentlemen, here are the facts.

Radius of the earth at latitude 51.5 degrees: 6365.080 km (according to my calculations, based on figures and a formula from Wikipedia)
Radius of the hole: 2.5 m (from what i remember)
Area of the Thames within London: 2050 ha (Tidal Thames habitat audit)
Depth of the Thames at the Barrier at lowest astronomical tide, which we will take as a fairly arbitrary guess at the average depth of the whole Thames within London: 6.1 m (Imray chart C2, based on Admiralty soundings)

So, how much of the hole can the Thames's water fill? I hope it's not too much to interrupt your critical flow to ask for a little bit of GCSE-level mathematics ...

-- tom

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