you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] 173 points 2 months ago (15 children)

Erosion is largely done by sediment being transported by the water I believe. The same principle is used in cutting water jets, it isnt the water pressure that cuts things, the water is a medium for abrasive materials

  • source
  • hideshow 15 child comments
  • [–] 39 points 2 months ago (8 children)

    This is also how they cut rocks in ancient egypt I believe? Not with water, mind you, but would use a pretty mediocre if not useless saw but would drop sand in there, so it was actually the sand cutting the rock

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 8 child comments
  • [–] 31 points 2 months ago (2 children)

    This is also how they cut rocks in ancient egypt

    I'm tired of this human-centric revisionist history. It completely devalues the contributions of hard working aliens.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • [–] 18 points 2 months ago (2 children)

    Yep! The would use a saw that often had a blade made of string, like a bow, but would but gritty, sandy water in the hole they were cutting to slowly grind it away. I think they would also use “dull” copper saws (don’t quote me on that one though)

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • [–] 6 points 2 months ago

    I think water by itself can randomly break a few loosely bound atoms off the surface of anything. But the rate of that dissolution is dwarfed by the wear effects of the sediment being transported by the water, which is the primary material remover.

  • source
  • parent
  • [+] -9 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 child)

    As my compatriot elucidated, when we were wee morons of damn near adult age, "I could keep stabbing this pole with this piece of metal, and after many eons of stabbing, this pole would come down!"

    I may just hallucinated . actually that young man graduated and went on.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment