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River Runner: drop a raindrop anywhere in the USA, watch where it ends up

river-runner.samlearner.com

21–30 of 128 posts

Re: River Runner: drop a raindrop anywhere in the USA, watch where it ends up

#21

There's a small part of North Dakota (and a teeny part of Montana) that drain into Hudson Bay. This led to the odd fact that these parts of the Midwest USA were for a while British territory (until 1818). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pembina_Region

Which part is that? I can't find it on the map. Just want to see the twisty windy path.

I think it must be northern?

Re: River Runner: drop a raindrop anywhere in the USA, watch where it ends up

#22

There's a small part of North Dakota (and a teeny part of Montana) that drain into Hudson Bay. This led to the odd fact that these parts of the Midwest USA were for a while British territory (until 1818). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pembina_Region

Which part is that? I can't find it on the map. Just want to see the twisty windy path.

Northeastern North Dakota. The website just shows it stopping at Canada since it's based on USGS data.

Re: River Runner: drop a raindrop anywhere in the USA, watch where it ends up

#24
Accolades!

Since no one else has done it I will ask for features: sometimes it takes a while for it to determine the route, there is no way to cancel that to go back to trying a new raindrop location

Wish there was a different way to get back to raindrop location instead of closing the existing route. Would prefer some kind of click/tap-state or gesture. More easily noticeable of an inconvenience on an ultrawide screen.

Re: River Runner: drop a raindrop anywhere in the USA, watch where it ends up

#25

Cool but doesn't a large amount get absorbed and end up in ground water pools etc?

Yes and some evaporates, but I think the tool is mapping the path of water that doesn't leave the water system that way and flows out into a larger body.

Re: River Runner: drop a raindrop anywhere in the USA, watch where it ends up

#26

Cool but doesn't a large amount get absorbed and end up in ground water pools etc?

Water goes through the water cycle. Even if it's absorbed by the ground, it eventually leads to collection, evaporation, and precipitation again.

If most of the water collected in underground pools, then eventually we'd have no oceans.

Re: River Runner: drop a raindrop anywhere in the USA, watch where it ends up

#27
It would be an interesting problem to see / solve where in this map would a drop travel the most. By just clicking, I got one that travels from Cavour, South Dakota to Gulf of Mexico over a 3523 Kms journey. I am sure there must be something that is longer!

Edit - some of the routes stop at border of Canada - is this due to lack of dataset?

Re: River Runner: drop a raindrop anywhere in the USA, watch where it ends up

#28
post #27

It would be an interesting problem to see / solve where in this map would a drop travel the most. By just clicking, I got one that travels from Cavour, South Dakota to Gulf of Mexico over a 3523 Kms journey. I am sure there must be something that is longer! Edit - some of the routes stop at border of Canada - is this due to lack of dataset?

The longest route in this dataset is almost certainly from Northwest Montana to the Gulf of Mexico; see, eg. the beautiful illustration of watersheds in North America at [1]. Example: [2]

[1] https://www.visualcapitalist.com/maps-worlds-watersheds/

[2] https://river-runner.samlearner.com/?lng=-113.26136901231438...

Re: River Runner: drop a raindrop anywhere in the USA, watch where it ends up

#29
post #17

This is great! I got a chuckle though that this is for the US only, but it shows distance in km instead of miles. I'd love it if we changed to metric but I don't see that happening any time soon.

The United States was one of the original signatories of the Metre Convention [1]. The metric system has been the foundation of all US measures since 1893 [2,3]. School children in the United States have learned both systems for decades. Ford trucks have metric bolts. The US military uses the metric system.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metrication_in_the_United_Stat...

[2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_customary_units

[3]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mendenhall_Order

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