water bridge

[shawnski]

Have you ever seen a Water Bridge over a river?......

Pretty Cool !

Even after you see it, it is still hard to believe !

WaterBridge in Germany. What a feat!

Six years, 500 million euros, 918 meters long.......now this is engineering!

This is a channel-bridge over the River Elbe and joins the former East and West Germany,
as part of the unification project. It is located in the city of Magdeburg, near Berlin.
The photo was taken on the day of inauguration.
To those who appreciate engineering projects, here's a puzzle for you armchair
engineers and physicists….

Did that bridge have to be designed to withstand the additional weight of ship and barge traffic, or just
the weight of the water?

 

[99'busa]

that pretty dang cool

 

[mike1180]

A floating object displaces it's own weight in water.
The red line on the side of the bridge is the water mark.
As long as the ships in the water do not raise the level above that, the bridge will hold.
The weight of the water and the ships is the same for the same level of water mark.
Good guess?

Cool pic thanks!

 

[Zoinks!]

Well, I'm no engineer or anything like that, so I may be displaying stupidity here, but wouldn't it just have to be able to handle the water weight? The boat won't add any weight to the water. It just floats and displaces the water. If it added weight you wouldn't be able to swim under a boat without getting crushed. Right? Or am I just an idiot?

 

[shawnski]

Answer:

It only needs to be designed to withstand the weight of the water!

Why? A ship always displaces an amount of water that weighs the same as the ship, regardless of how heavily a ship may be loaded.

 

[CTA_Busa_LE]

cool pic. As for the physics of it, somebody is getting paid a whole lot more money than me to figure all that stuff out. Either way doesn't matter much to me as I don't have any future plans of building anything like that.

 

[mike1180]

Answer:

It only needs to be designed to withstand the weight of the water!

Why? A ship always displaces an amount of water that weighs the same as the ship, regardless of how heavily a ship may be loaded.

As long as the displaced water does not go above the red line water level.
That would be the weight limit of the bridge.

 

[Zoinks!]

Answer:

It only needs to be designed to withstand the weight of the water!

Why? A ship always displaces an amount of water that weighs the same as the ship, regardless of how heavily a ship may be loaded.

Awesome! I was right!

 

[ditchdr]

where are the "no fishing from bridge" signs

 

[shawnski]

where are the "no fishing from bridge" signs