The Cubed Law

Five-year-old Kyle Doan told his mum 'be calm' seconds before being swept away in California's floods

More flooding, more people swept away. I do not know the circumstances surrounding the disappearance of this Fire Chief, but I do know the circumstances of creeks.

In a nutshell:-

(1) The energy of a moving particle is given by the formula 0.5 multiplied by the mass multiplied by the square of the velocity (Newton). Triple the velocity, nine times the energy.

(2) The energy of a moving fluid is given by the formula 0.5 multiplied by the mass multiplied by the CUBE of the velocity (Puzey). Triple the velocity, TWENTY-SEVEN times the energy.

(3) Pickup trucks have much power; I have seen a an advertisement where a pickup truck tows a large jetliner. Much power! Pickup trucks have no sideways power. When you cross a creek, the fluid comes at you from the side.

(4) Pickup trucks have more power than, say, a little Honda Civic, but pickup trucks do NOT have more power than twenty-seven little Honda Civics.

(5) If I’ve done the math right, water at twelve inches deep covers an area of the wheels about thirteen times as much as water four inches deep. That’s thirteen times the area against which twenty-seven times as much energy will be expended.

(6) Swollen creeks carry more pebbles (twenty-seven times as much energy, remember) which act like ball-bearings.

(7) These ball-bearing like particles are lubricated

There’s more, but you get the idea.

Never drive across, or walk across, a swollen creek.

Ever.

“... noting Keeash had water safety and survival skills”.

Note that the body is found in a river.

Note that the energy of a moving fluid is proportional to the Cube of the Velocity.

I expanded on this above. The sad truth is that no matter what your swimming skills are, you just can’t beat a river that is, at three times its normal velocity, offering twenty-seven times its normal energy (to kill you).

And there is no beating hypothermia. Energy always drains to a lower-level. No matter if your body temperature is 36.0c and the water is 35.9c, that one-tenth of one degree is enough to drain away your energy. Of course, early May in Thunder Bay, the river water is still cold from the melting snows, so the steeper temperature gradient drains away energy even faster.

And that means less energy for you to fight the (cubed) energy of the river.

You die.

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