I'd rather get the top 3 floors of a huge tall skyscraper in central london, say Canada Square or something....
... and replace the top floor and the third floor with glass and fill it with water and fish and neon lights, like an aquarium. So as you look out over the whole of london you can see the fish floating about like birds. And then on my floor, the middle of the 3, they'll be a cocktail and dim sum bar, where everything for me and my guests would be free. And there is a big jaccuzzi there right next to the bar so you can eat and drink while inside it. I'd have to record hollyoaks though.
( G/PP 💩💩💩💩💩&#128, Tue 2 Aug 2011, 11:50, 3 replies, latest was 15 years ago)

you should go to the bar in the new heron tower
it has the biggest aquarium in europe in its reception, i think. the service charge includes a fee for a fully frog-suited diver to come in and clean it once a week!
( rachelswipe with a fork, Tue 2 Aug 2011, 11:52, Reply)

What a rubbish website, someone should be fired for that.

( G/PP 💩💩💩💩💩&#128, Tue 2 Aug 2011, 11:55, Reply)

This is a great idea
though on first reading I thought you meant you'd turn the skyscraper into a giant fishtank and then I was wondering how you'd get giant fish, and was wondering if sharks would be big enough.
( crackhouseceilidhband Fuck off back to Mumsnet, Tue 2 Aug 2011, 11:52, Reply)

water is really fucking heavy right
so if you did that, you'd probably cause the building to fall down
( Vipros. clever got me this far, then tricky got me in, Tue 2 Aug 2011, 11:57, Reply)

What about if you make it bubbly water? Is it lighter if there are bubbles, because there is more air and less water then?

( G/PP 💩💩💩💩💩&#128, Tue 2 Aug 2011, 11:59, Reply)

Also, buildings need counter-balances on top of them to adjust when the wind comes, so it could help with that.

( G/PP 💩💩💩💩💩&#128, Tue 2 Aug 2011, 12:00, Reply)

Could make them mezamean floors.

( G/PP 💩💩💩💩💩&#128, Tue 2 Aug 2011, 12:00, Reply)

And they'll bread lobsters in them, and you can pick them, and you can eat lobsters like most people eat normal tiny shrimps.

( G/PP 💩💩💩💩💩&#128, Tue 2 Aug 2011, 12:01, Reply)

God, I love lobster.

( G/PP 💩💩💩💩💩&#128, Tue 2 Aug 2011, 12:01, Reply)

wouldn't make a lot of difference
an office building will be designed for a live load of 5kN/m^2, and assuming 2.5m ceiling heights and the water not moving at all your aquarium would be about 25kN/m^2
( Vipros. clever got me this far, then tricky got me in, Tue 2 Aug 2011, 12:02, Reply)

That'd just mean that the internal floor structure would collapse, though
rather than the entire building, shirley?
( Kroney, Tue 2 Aug 2011, 12:03, Reply)

Although I guess once it gets to ground level, it's going to want to push outwards
with a considerable amount of force.
( Kroney, Tue 2 Aug 2011, 12:04, Reply)

WATERPROOF TROUSERS.

( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Tue 2 Aug 2011, 12:11, Reply)

Yeah', I guess a bit of tarpooling would fix the job.

( G/PP 💩💩💩💩💩&#128, Tue 2 Aug 2011, 12:11, Reply)

you know columns right?
they go all the way down to the bottom. Yeah, you'd most likely get the beams and floors shearing away from the columns, but all of that shit falling multiple stories is going to fuck shit up.
( Vipros. clever got me this far, then tricky got me in, Tue 2 Aug 2011, 12:13, Reply)

Out of curiousity, can you calculate how much force
5m by, say, 60m2 of water will place on the walls of a tower block once it hits ground level and compresses?
( Kroney, Tue 2 Aug 2011, 12:15, Reply)

hitting the ground and going outwards?
not all that easily.

water is treated as incompressible as well
( Vipros. clever got me this far, then tricky got me in, Tue 2 Aug 2011, 12:17, Reply)

Really? Why's that?
Because if it didn't compress when it hit the ground, it wouldn't place pressure on the walls.
( Kroney, Tue 2 Aug 2011, 12:29, Reply)

because
it is basically incompressible. Compression isn't what would make it put pressure on the walls.
( Vipros. clever got me this far, then tricky got me in, Tue 2 Aug 2011, 12:44, Reply)

So what does?
I'm genuinely interested, albeit shamefully ignorant.
( Kroney, Tue 2 Aug 2011, 12:48, Reply)

magic

( b3th Not shit. Not mod., Tue 2 Aug 2011, 12:50, Reply)

conservation of energy and momentum

( Vipros. clever got me this far, then tricky got me in, Tue 2 Aug 2011, 13:25, Reply)

So what you're saying is, in a world where we can build skyscrapers to be 100s of storys tall.... in a world where we can fly from london to new york inside a few hours....
...in a world where engering is advance that we have all of humanty's collective knowledge accessable to anyone in the world.... in a world where we can put man on the moon.... that we can't build an equarium in the sky if we really really put all our efforts into it?
( G/PP 💩💩💩💩💩&#128, Tue 2 Aug 2011, 12:07, Reply)

you could
but you'd have to build it like that from the start
( Vipros. clever got me this far, then tricky got me in, Tue 2 Aug 2011, 12:11, Reply)

OK, we'll do that then.
Maybe build it in the middle of hyde park.
( G/PP 💩💩💩💩💩&#128, Tue 2 Aug 2011, 12:12, Reply)

Also
we can't fly across the Atlantic in a few hours anymore. Or put a man on the moon either, for that matter.

Scientific progress is in reverse gear.
( b3th Not shit. Not mod., Tue 2 Aug 2011, 12:38, Reply)

What, like 'Kriss Kross'?

( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Tue 2 Aug 2011, 12:42, Reply)

Uhuh uhuh

( sporters I’m sincerely gratitude to you, Tue 2 Aug 2011, 12:43, Reply)

The Daddy Mac'll make you jump jump

( b3th Not shit. Not mod., Tue 2 Aug 2011, 12:47, Reply)

We, as humans, can still travel from london to new york inside hours.
OK, fair comment about the moon thing though, although I suspect that if we as a planet wanted too, really really wanted too, and it was important, we would do it.
( G/PP 💩💩💩💩💩&#128, Tue 2 Aug 2011, 12:47, Reply)

I think it's more impressive that we, as humans,
can make our own pasta.

That's some kind of skill, right there.
( b3th Not shit. Not mod., Tue 2 Aug 2011, 12:48, Reply)

London to Halifax, Nova Scotia
takes 5 hours.

FACTBOMB
( Kroney, Tue 2 Aug 2011, 12:49, Reply)