Isn't the screw, when stopped, a continuous inclined plane so that water poured in at one end would just run "downhill" around the turns of the screw and out the other end? I did look at the photos and that's what it appeared to me. Sean On Fri, Jul 9, 2010 at 4:30 AM, wrote: >> I'm not sure if that's a joke or not. I realize that the water which >> has fully reached the top will not backflow since it is lower than the >> end of the screw. However, any water inside the screw will flow back >> down into the lower pool if the screw speed is insufficient to keep up >> with the pull of gravity on the water. Am I missing something? >> >> On Thu, Jul 8, 2010 at 9:03 PM, John Gardner wrote: >> > What backflow? =A0 :) > > It's not a joke, as for most of the screw the water does not cover the sc= rew, so the water cannot backflow. If the screw is made as a channel with a= n open top (see the pictures in the links I posted previously about power g= eneration using a screw) then the only backflow is when the water overflows= a turn of the screw. > > There will be a trickle backflow due to an inevitable gap between the scr= ew and the channel, but careful design would make this reasonably minimal. > -- > Scanned by iCritical. > > -- > http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive > View/change your membership options at > http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist > -- = http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist