[00:00] - So I dig water towers.
[00:02] - Don't get me started on water towers.
[00:03] - Oh really?
[00:05] - Don't even.
[00:06] - You like water towers too?
[00:07] Or--
- I'm--
[00:08] - Please, I don't wanna
feel alone in this.
[00:09] (laughing)
[00:11] Please say yes.
[00:12] (bright music)
[00:16] - So when you talk about water towers,
[00:18] - Yes.
[00:19] - You have to be specific.
[00:20] Because if you live in New York City,
[00:21] - Right.
- Water tower
[00:22] means only one thing,
and that's the vessel
[00:25] that holds water on the
top of your building.
[00:26] But most people I think,
when they hear water tower,
[00:30] they think of the water tower that's in
[00:31] the center of their town.
[00:32] - [Interviewer] That's true.
[00:33] - And if you came at the
right time, in twilight,
[00:36] and you're not quite fully there,
[00:39] it looks like, they all almost look like
[00:41] they landed from Mars.
[00:42] - Right.
[00:43] - Aliens comin' down.
[00:44] In fact, during the broadcast
of "War of the Worlds"
[00:49] there are people thinking it's real
[00:50] and they were described as having these,
[00:52] you know, and so people
were shooting water towers.
[00:54] (whooshing)
(clinking)
[00:55] - [Interviewer] Shooting water towers.
[00:56] - Yeah, thinking that was
what was being described.
[00:58] Anyhow, so--
[01:00] - Kinda cool, actually.
[01:01] (laughing)
[01:03] - Water towers are interesting because
[01:04] it gives you water pressure
[01:07] without electricity,
provided it's full of water.
[01:10] - Right.
[01:11] - All right? But how do
you get the water up there?
[01:12] You gotta pump it.
[01:14] Water doesn't get there by itself.
[01:15] - Okay, now--
[01:16] - How you gonna get water
up to the top of your roof?
[01:18] You gotta pump it.
[01:19] That takes electricity.
[01:20] So here's what happens.
[01:21] You pump the water up to the tower.
[01:22] Oop, now that's a blackout.
[01:25] You still have water
until that tank empties.
[01:28] - Right.
[01:29] - Then you don't have water.
[01:30] - 'Cause you have gravity.
[01:31] As long as you have gravity--
[01:32] - As long as you have, well,
gravity to pull the water
[01:34] from--
- To pull the water from--
[01:35] the tower.
- Then you have it.
[01:36] - Right.
[01:37] - So basically, if the
electricity goes out,
[01:39] quickly fill up everything with water.
[01:42] And then it'll be gone and then you could,
[01:44] you don't have to be stank,
you know, the next day.
[01:46] - So now here's the interesting question.
[01:48] If you gotta pump the
water up to the tower,
[01:50] - Right.
[01:51] - Why not just pump the water straight
[01:53] to the people's apartments
in the building?
[01:55] - Oh, 'cause they might
not need it in that moment.
[01:57] Plus, you want enough
water at any given instant
[02:01] (water trickling)
[02:02] to accommodate--
- To everybody.
[02:03] - [Neil] If everybody
wants to take a shower,
[02:04] they can do it.
[02:05] - [Interviewer] Right,
because all the water is right
[02:07] in this one tank.
- Right in that one thing.
[02:08] But if you, therefore,
everybody would have to have
[02:10] a pump, and what's the point of that?
[02:12] - [Interviewer] Right.
[02:13] - Right, right.
[02:13] So it has that efficiency, okay?
[02:15] - See, I like water towers even more now.
[02:16] - Now here's another thing.
[02:17] Have you ever noticed the
buckles that go around
[02:20] the water tower that holds theme together?
[02:21] - Yes, they're like
little metal rods that go
[02:23] all the way round.
- The metal rods.
[02:24] Yeah, have you ever noticed those?
[02:25] - Yes I have.
[02:26] - Have you ever thought about them?
[02:27] - Uh, not really.
[02:28] - Let's split the water tower
into three levels, right?
[02:31] - Okay.
- Top, middle and bottom.
[02:32] - Okay, that would be a good three.
[02:34] - So you can ask, what is
the weight of the water
[02:37] of that top third?
[02:39] It's whatever it is, okay?
- Right.
[02:41] - [Neil] Call it 500 pounds.
[02:42] - [Interviewer] 500 pounds.
[02:44] - [Neil] So now I put a
little buckle around that.
[02:45] - [Interviewer] Right.
[02:47] - [Neil] Okay? Right at that spot.
[02:47] Let me go to the bottom of that.
[02:51] Now what is the weight
of water at that point?
[02:53] Well, it's the top part--
- It's 500,
[02:55] - Plus 500
- Plus 500.
[02:56] - It's 1000 pounds.
- It's 1000 pounds.
[02:58] - Well if--
- Plus the 500 at the bottom
[03:00] pushin' up.
- I didn't get there yet.
[03:01] I didn't get there yet.
- Sorry.
[03:02] - [Neil] So if one of these hoops is
[03:06] the right strength to hold 500 pounds,
[03:09] - [Interviewer] Right.
[03:10] - [Neil] Then that one,
I need more than one hoop
[03:12] to hold it down here.
[03:14] - [Interviewer] Right, yeah.
[03:15] - [Neil] I need two.
[03:15] - [Interviewer] Right.
[03:16] - [Neil] If one can hold 500
and two will hold the thousand.
[03:18] Now I'm at the bottom.
[03:19] (water gurgling)
[03:20] I have 500 plus 500, I got 1500 pounds
[03:22] pressin' down the bottom.
[03:23] - [Interviewer] Right.
[03:24] - [Neil] I need three of those hoops.
[03:26] - [Interviewer] Gotcha.
[03:26] - Okay?
[03:27] Go look at the water towers
on the tops of buildings.
[03:31] The hoops get closer and closer together--
[03:33] - Closer and closer as
you get to the bottom.
[03:34] - As you get to the bottom.
[03:35] Just because of this fact,
the water gets heavy.
[03:39] - Nice.
[03:40] That is more than you ever
wanted to know about water.
[03:42] - I know, it is, it is so too much.
[03:44] (laughing)
[03:45] - And it's so cool as
far as I'm concerned.
[03:46] - If they're equally spaced,
the person didn't know
[03:48] what they were doing and you should not
[03:49] move into that building.
[03:50] Because the base of the
water tower would not be
[03:53] as structurally sound
as the upper portions,
[03:55] and that's, you know, that's
where the stuff goes bad.
[03:57] - You better have flood
insurance if that happens.
[03:59] (laughing)
[04:00] Wow, that is so cool.
[04:01] Water towers.
- Water towers.
[04:02] A little bit of physics.
[04:03] - A little bit of physics.
[04:04] - A little bit electricity.
[04:05] - It's all happenin'.
[04:06] - Oh, one last thing, one last thing.
[04:07] - Oh, cool.
[04:08] - If a building in Manhattan is lower than
[04:10] about six stories, it
doesn't need a water tower.
[04:13] - All right.
[04:15] Hm, because, wait, let me guess.
[04:18] Because you can get the
water to every apartment
[04:21] just through the regular
pressure of a pump?
[04:23] - Yes, no, it's not a pump.
[04:24] - Not a pump.
[04:25] - It's the height of the reservoir that's
[04:27] feeding Manhattan has that
elevation above Manhattan.
[04:31] - [Interviewer] Gotcha. So the pressure
[04:33] is already there.
- So the water falls.
[04:35] The water falls from the reservoir
[04:38] into your faucet.
- Into your faucet.
[04:40] - Over that height.
[04:42] And you know something?
[04:43] The ancient Romans knew that.
[04:44] The aqueducts.
- Aqueducts were
[04:45] built on that.
[04:47] - Aqueducts, some of which,
[04:49] pieces of which are still standing,
[04:50] - [Interviewer] Yeah.
[04:51] - Was a channel that fed a lake,
[04:54] or whatever was their water supply,
[04:56] which was at a higher elevation than Rome.
[04:58] And they scoop up that water and the water
[05:00] just goes down all by itself.
- By itself.
[05:02] - No pump necessary.
[05:03] - Boy, they don't build those aqueducts
[05:05] like they used to.
[05:06] - I know, and it's still standing.
[05:06] - Yep.
- We got stuff
[05:07] here fallin' down that built 10 years ago.
[05:09] And that's up for 2000 years.
[05:10] - God dag.
[05:12] - That just meant the mayor
[05:14] - Of Rome.
- Of Rome.
[05:16] Spent too much money building it.
[05:17] (laughing)
[05:18] If your structures
outlive your civilization
[05:20] by 2000 years?
[05:21] - Yeah.
[05:22] - You overbuilt.
[05:23] - You probably overbuilt.
[05:24] That's very funny.
[05:25] All right, there you go.
[05:26] Who knew there was so much to learn
[05:27] about water towers?
[05:28] So next time I wash my
hands, I'm gonna remember
[05:30] how far that water had to travel
[05:31] into my building.
[05:32] Yes, right.
[05:33] By the way, I never wash my hands.
[05:36] Okay, if you're interested
in learning more
[05:38] about hydrostatic pressure,
[05:39] why our everyday
appliances are constructed
[05:42] in certain ways, or how we use gravity
[05:44] to our advantage every single day,
[05:46] you should check out Brilliant.
[05:48] Whether you're into superpowers,
[05:50] or, well of course, that's superpowers,
[05:52] or a life long learner,
or just somebody who
[05:55] is naturally curious,
[05:56] - Or if you're weirdly into water towers
[05:58] like he is.
[05:59] - Brilliant will help you master concepts
[06:01] in math, science, and engineering through
[06:03] solving fun, challenging problems.
[06:05] I'm looking through the Outside
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[06:08] These beautiful geometry problems have
[06:10] such amazing solutions that I wanna read
[06:13] the solutions even if I got it correct.
[06:15] It's so much fun, I don't even
realize that I'm learning.
[06:18] This is seriously amazing stuff.
[06:20] And as a bonus to StarTalk viewers,
[06:22] the first 78 that go to
Brilliant.org/startalk--
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pull that number out of?
[06:27] You know what? Thin air!
[06:29] Right there.
[06:30] You'll get 20% off an annual subscription
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[06:36] - You know where I pull numbers out of?
[06:37] - Where?
[06:38] - Thin space.
[06:39] - Ooh, snap, he's--
- That's thinner
[06:40] than your thin air.
[06:41] - 'Cause there's no atmosphere.
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[07:08] (bright music)