Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site lsuc.UUCP Path: utzoo!lsuc!msb From: msb@lsuc.UUCP (Mark Brader) Newsgroups: net.physics Subject: Re: A couple of old Physics puzzles Message-ID: <228@lsuc.UUCP> Date: Sat, 22-Dec-84 02:20:45 EST Article-I.D.: lsuc.228 Posted: Sat Dec 22 02:20:45 1984 Date-Received: Sat, 22-Dec-84 22:21:43 EST References: <327@bonnie.UUCP> <47@rti-sel.UUCP> <333@bonnie.UUCP> Reply-To: msb@lsuc.UUCP (Mark Brader) Distribution: net Organization: Law Society of Upper Canada, Toronto Lines: 18 Summary: This is silly. > > > 1)Why are the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans at different > > > levels? > > Who said they are at different levels? > The water levels at the two ends of the Panama Canal > sometimes differ by more than a foot! (Locks and all that) This is silly. Naturally the surface of the ocean isn't at the same level everywhere -- there are tides, for one thing! And then there's weather: a low pressure area causes the water level to rise locally, which is one reason hurricanes are destructive to coastal areas. But these effects aren't going to respect anything like the artificial boundary line across the Drake Passage separating the Atlantic and Pacific parts of the ONE ocean on the planet! The meaning might have been just that the average levels *at the two ends of the Panama Canal* are different, though the "sometimes" suggests otherwise. I'd think that an effect as small as about a foot could easily be explained by ocean currents interacting with the coasts. Mark Brader