Panama Canal: How It "Lifts" Massive Ships
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- Опубликовано: 30 дек 2021
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------------------ABOUT THIS VIDEO------------------
In this video, we investigate how the Panama Canal Locks are used to raise millions of tons of ships up 87ft, from sea level to the height of Gatun Lake.
We will also find out how water-saving basins allowed the locks to expand without using any more water.
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Panama Canal Map by Peter Hermes Furian / Shutterstock.com
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All content on this channel is provided for entertainment purposes only. Although every effort has been made to ensure the content is accurate and up to date, it remains the responsibility of the viewer to determine its accuracy and validity. The content should never be used to substitute professional advice or education. 
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I never thought a single RUclips channel with such narrow focus would answer so many of my questions. Hope to continue seeing more! Happy 2022.
Exactly!!!
Thanks. There is plenty more coming in 2022.
@@CasualNavigation you've lived my childhood dream of seafaring and now educating millions ❤️
Agreed! I really like what you are doing with this channel; it’s great! Thanks
It's crazy how many engineering problems are solved with moving large amounts of water... and how many engineering problems are _caused_ by large amounts of water moving 😂
*Salton Sea has entered the chat*
@@danl6634 the Netherlands also joined and takes over the chat.
@@sirBrouwer *the sea takes over the chat*
@@brrrrrr The Netherlands takes over the sea. Drains that sea and build farmland on the reclaimed land.
@@sirBrouwer that's alotta work
The amount of engineering that goes into shipping is fascinating
Check out Chief Makoi if you haven't already. He's a certified chief engineer and talks about life at sea and the mechanics of the vessels. Much like Casual Navigation, he breaks down topics without talking down to his audience.
I've been on a maritime video binge lately and wondered if I would enjoy working on a ship... then I remember that I'm terrified by the deep ocean 😂
*into make it cheaper therefore making more money
@@Kennar_ It's also more efficient, using less energy and wasting less water.
I'd recommend his channel too. He posts great content.
I sure didn't expect a nine minute video to cover both per-ship amortized efficiencies and the intermediate pools, the information density and clarity here is really impressive. Good job :)
Glad you liked it!
I'm a chartered marine engineer and have been through the Panama Canal twice: westbound and eastbound. I never knew this. A fascinating channel. Many thanks.
Chartered Maritime engineer sounds like a fascinating job, what’s does a day in the life of your job actually consist of?
@@mycroft1132 I was in the Royal Navy so no day was ever the same as another. As an example although a marine engineer I also boarded ships as a boarding officer during maritime interdiction operations.
The Panama Canal is amazing. If you ever get the chance to go, they have a great museum at Miraflores. I was lucky enough to do a training course at the Canal Authority Admin Building - it is both gorgeous and full of history. The canal pilots are also awesome. They have to train with scale model ships as well as simulators and take their jobs EXTREMELY seriously. I would have loved to speak with some of the canal operators too, but we were mostly focused on navigation. Thanks for filling in some of the gaps!
That sounds really interesting. I've been through on ships, but never been able to get off and explore.
Let us navigate ourselves into a better year, ladies and gents. Happy new year everyone!
Unfortunately its only going to get worse from here.
@@willmorrell488 but at least for today we can try to forget ;)
@@morkovija Yes.
Happy New Year!
hahaha
NO.
Gravity + water = Ship escalator. Such a simple yet powerful system.
Honestly I thought they just pumped water upwards to move ships upwards. That would work but it'd use a lot of energy. What I *didn't* see in this video is how they obtain water at the highest elevation portion of the canal but I guess it must just be from a natural, rain-fed waterway?
I live on a canal boat and I've been through hundreds of locks, including staircases but not anything as big as the Panama Canal! This is the best explanation of how it works that I've seen. Well done!
Already knew the answer to this, but liked and commented anyways.
You're so generous
This. There's a difference between knowing the things and getting them explained, in detail, by a well spoken dude.
Also, the water-saving badins WERE new to me, but they make so much sense, I wonder why I didn't think of them XD
@@saschaberg8406 I think Practical Engineering made a video about water-saving contraptions in locks before, it's good video too, you may want to check it out!
I used to love opening and closing the locks on the canals as a kid, we would hang around waiting for a canal barge to pass by, they were only to happy to let us kids do the work for them... still find it fascinating, really enjoyed this video cheers mate, keep up the good work
And then for small ship, high displacement locks, a gravity hydraulic lift lock is even more efficient. The Trent-Severn waterway in Ontario Canada has two of these lift locks, only wasting about a foot of water each trip.
It works by having a hydraulic system in the shape of an ‘H’ with a stop valve in the middle with two piston rams on either side holding up a basin each. The water depth on top is greater (about a foot or so) than the bottom so when in it's open position, one basin is gaining water and the other is losing water. When it's time to switch, the valve in the center opens and the side on top, due to it having more weight from that extra foot of water, let's gravity take control. This goes until it reaches the bottom and the valve is closed. At this point, both basins open up, restarting the cycle, now on opposing rams.
Having navigated the flight of locks at on a canal boat as a teenager, I really appreciate the effort needed to go up through them.
1:02 - THAT'S MY CITY! THAT'S OTTAWA!! we don't get mentioned a lot outside of politics so this was exciting. Carry on
A deeply memorable moment of my childhood was when we took our little ski boat through the massive locks at Kentucky Lake Dam. Massive barges go through that lock. Wow, I felt small!
1:03 Eyyy!! The stunning "Rideau Canal Locks" in Ottawa! I saw those when I went to a convention, and they are absolutely STUNNING! Highly recommend!
Used to Live in Port Colborne at the Lake Erie End of the Welland Canal. They use eight locks along the length of the canal to raise and lower ships the height of Niagara Falls between Lake Ontario and the higher elevation Lake Erie. It was always fun watching the ships come through town as a kid.
see this is the kind of things we should be taught in school. not the actual science behind it but the ingenuity behind it. Letting kids be fascinated by things like this would allow their brains to develop a more flexible mindset when it comes to getting solutions to complex problems.
Way more efficient and sophisticated than I expected, how cool
This channel gives me answers to questions I have never thought about! Amazing!
Very but very clear explanations.
Thank you.
Glad you liked it
I've never had the privilege of transiting either of the great canals (cries in non-world power Navy) - but the engineering marvel of the Panama Canal never ceases to amaze me!
Outstanding video, I love watching videos on maritime concepts that this deck officer doesn't often get to be an expert in! 🚢
I’m from Colombia (country next to panama) and I once went there, the place was stunning they even have a museum of their construction
Here in Canada Ontario we have the Trent Canal System. When I went up there last summer I heard about this really cool system to get boats from one lake to another. Basically it’s a train for boats where it comes in the water at one end, the boat drives in, and then the boat is driven across land to the other lake.
Sounds very interesting
Fascinating indeed. What you don't know you don't know - until you know it!
Definitely a "bucket list" ride, the Panama Canal.
THIS CHANNEL > LIFE
It's funny, I started catching up on these videos because I haven't watched in a while, and I finished the last one I hadn't watched yesterday, then you uploaded today, so that was quite nice.
On a seperate note, I'm from Canada and I was happy to see the locks from the Rideau canal.
Happy New Year!
Happy New Year!
Haha ... and here i was thinking i knew how locks truly worked. Fascinating stuff!
What a lovely explanation video!
I've spent most of my time around the great lakes: plenty of locks here to ogle.
I love this channel!! Didn’t know I had such a big interest in ships!
Great video, your animations never cease to make your videos wonderfully detailed yet concise and easy to understand.
I grew up on the Ohio river. I loved watching the barges going through the locks.
Brillant explanation of the water saving technique.
I live near the C&O Canal in the USA and work in tourism. Thought I was the only one who found the ingenuity of canal locks fascinating!
Casual Navigation is a great channel
Back in the early 2000's there was a Docu-drama series produced in the UK about the "Seven Wonders of the Industrial World" (seven episodes, one for each wonder) produced by the BBC.
One of the Episodes was the Panama Canal, Showed pretty much everything from start to finish and the struggles of all the different ways to try to build it (the sea level canal mentioned was a disaster), multiple companies going bust. The struggles of the workforce and deaths from Yellow fever and eventually the US Government getting the army to build it in the form it is today.
If you can can find it it's well worth a watch.
I swear, every time I watch one of these vids I'm amazed. I'm also humbled at the lack of my own knowledge. I had no idea of the dynamics involved in this .
Superb explanation! Thank you!
I first remember learning about locks from watching Rosie and Jim, aged 6
Very interesting. Thanks for sharing this with us.
I mean in the end, the answer was water. Kind of already knew that, but this is very informative! I learned something for once
I've lived for over five years on the English canals and locks are a major feature. My favourite is the Caen Hill flight of 16 locks at Devizes in Wiltshire. Each lock has a large side pound to enable it to work. The canal between locks is a pound anyway, but close together locks need extra help, and Caen Hill also has a pumping station at the bottom to assist at drier times.
Fascinating as always!
Never heard of the saving basins. Thanks.
1:02 Hey that's the Rideau canal locks in Ottawa, Ontario
Literally to the left of this is Parliament Hill...where I happen to work
Excellently explained
These systems to save water and make the process more efficient are so fascinating! In the first example with the two ships in three locks, when I saw the second ship come in and realized it was going to piggyback off the first ship's water that was so cool. Thank you! I hope you can do more videos about systems like these!
Awesome that you used a picture of Ottawa for the locks. There's even more of them there than in the picture and it looks spectacular.
Something else interesting to note, I learned when transiting the Panama Canal, when entering a lock, especially when you are panamax width and close to panamax depth, the propeller doesn't so much push you into the lock, as it acts as pump, pulling the water OUT of the lock, and allowing the ship to take up the volume displaced inside the lock. We would be at 1/2 ahead maneuvering, and be making about 1/2 of our Dead Slow Ahead speed as we entered.
The other thing I learned that trip, if you don't keep an eye on the riding gang, they will flush chicken bones down the toilets and royally mess up the MSD tank!
Huh, so you all needed to put some extra oomph into entering such a confined space because of the displacement that the ship took up trying to get inside. Interesting.
@@ryanotte6737 correct. Especially when you “barely fit” into the opening
@@stephenbritton9297 Interesting indeed and thx for sharing a little engineering/practical tidbit about how such an important part of the global economy operates. Whether it be pulling the water out via the prop or thought of as the ship's hull pushing the water out of the confined lock space, either way there needs to be some extra work/energy/power applied to make it happen.
I’ve seen this mechanic used in most shipping games and it’s pretty cool
simply amazing video, answerd all the questions on olcks even the ones that i didn't know i had
I'd never heard of this, such an interesting design. Thank you for your work, and Happy New Year!
Happy New Year
Fascinating! Good explanation.
Not inly did they do an awesome job explaining how the lock works, but they talked about the displacement of water from the lake! I never even thought of that being an issue. Then they answered my question I barely had time to ask.
Nicely explained!
Amazing video, I love your topics, I'm looking out to your video's in 2022!
great video. ingenious system. thanks.
Love your videos! Thank you!
If there is enough space between locks for ships to manoure, you can save more water still by letting rised ship come out of full lock, and send diferent ship down in the same lock.
Talking about locks makes me think of Cruising the Cut. :)
Excellent work. Keep it up.
Thank you for the wonderful content
This is your best video yet !
amazing, brother. Happy New Year!
Happy new year!
Truly fascinating!
Okay not going to lie. The crane animation at the beginning did have me thinking there was some kind of mega crane. Then he said the word "Lock" and I quickly debunked that and understood it lmao
Seeing this episode about locks, It reminds me of the special locks / kind of dam that was used to partially remove the sand around the Mt-St-Michel
I am loving this channel
In this email country, we have approximately 4,200 miles of inland waterways. A large majority of which are canals. I spent six years living in a 62’ narrowboat. Considering that many canals have to cross mountainous and hilly parts of the country, this involves the use of many locks, however the canals often bore through hills in tunnels or use othe means to effect a transit from one level to another. The Anderson Boat lift is one, there used to be an inclined pain at Foxton and in Scotland there is an ingenious counter-balanced wheel at Falkirk. Locks are also used on navigational rivers, which hol water back to create weirs, accompanying them to effect a change of water level.in a flowing river.
Living right next to the Welland Canal my whole life has been pretty cool. It's really interesting to see this technology in action on such a large scale
It is so very good and educational video. It helps Many seafarers to be aware of every situation occured at sea.
This is wonderful
Well done!
Very interesting!
Wow, fascinating!
i love your channel man keep up the great work ❤️👌🏻
Glad you enjoy it!
Hi mate. Sort of new here. I've applied for the royal navy and have been using this channel to scoff up all the maritime information possible. Its been really quite amazing and helpful to realise how much there is to know, would you ever consider doing some videos on military vessels? I believe you did a video on stealth ships (or that might of been another channel) and submarines. Have you ever thought doing something regarding torpedoes? In both design, targeting, and how a ship would manoeuvre to avoid them. Keep it up!
awesome video, I didn't even notice that I watched the whole thing.
I had no idea locks were so fascinating!
I love these videos
I used to think that the locks pumped water from the sea each time so the lake won't get drained.
we just outsource that job to the water cycle 😂
I thought they pump them back and ford in between lock 😂😂
Happy new year from Australia!!!
Happy New Year!
Casual Navigation - the Wendover of the Seas. 🙂🍻
You should check the krammen locks in the netherlands. It is a lock that connect salt with sweet water and because of this the lock seperates the salt and sweet water so it doesnt drain into eachother
I love how comical it gets by the end
I’ve been on a boat through one of these. It was pretty cool
I love this stuff
I've been interested in canals for many years and read several explanations as to how staircase locks and pounds save water, none of which I've fully grasped. The graphics with your explanation made so much more sense. Very educational, thanks.
My one question would be doesn't the bi-directionality of the traffic spoil the water efficiency of the Panama Canal locks somewhat, or do they use different sets for each direction? Does this help?
Boats going in opposite directions save water as you don't need to fill the lock
@@snailhawk you need to think that through a bit better in light of the staircase lock situation referred to.
I have some experience in marine engineering, though not with locks. In any case, you can see the satellite imagery of the Panama Canal locks and other lock systems throughout the world that have high bidirectional traffic, particularly crossing inland. The north end of Panama is particularly clear that the two sets are for bidirectional traffic. In general, these situations tend to use two sets for each direction from what I can tell. Practically speaking, I imagine there would be water savings given having the two sets could continue that sequential set of ships passing through that allows the multiple-locks and the water-saving basin setup to keep the water savings going as demonstrated in the animations. Reversing traffic direction would likely require draining much of that water savings built up.
This seems like one of those scenarios where I am sure the experts considered traffic consistency and a number of other factors put into a equation set or design spreadsheet of some sort. How much they save by having two sets, I couldn't say.
The St. Lawrence Seaway (Great lakes and St. Lawrence River) only has a single lock going around the Moses-Sounders Dam (which has 2 observation points, covid closed the one at the visitor center). Being on such a large river with relatively low traffic flows i imagine then can plan traffic to raise a ship and then lower a ship with the same water, effectively halving water usage on top of any other wayer saving methods employed.
I also suspect that the whole system together counts as a ladder lock, just with many miles of river / lake / reservoir between them. (Technically we call the reservoir Lake St. Lawrence and I'm kinda fuzzy on where it ends and Lake Ontario begins especially since the Thousand Islands looks like a reverse river delta (they are made of rock though))
I had no interest in naval technology before I found your channel, just an amazing channel. Every video is interesting!
What a informative video
Glad you liked it
@@CasualNavigation yes I did, I'm studying to become an officer on board of a ship and this kind of videos, your content helps me understand more about the maritime industry and how everything works, thank you a lot
Well, second video I have watched... and yep, you hooked me. Happy to subscribe to an interesting and new to me channel, in the new year :)
Of course, the Caen Hill central lock flight on the Kennet & Avon canal in Wiltshire, England, comprising 16 locks in succession, all have side ponds, enormously bigger than each of the locks, and was built over 200 years ago. It's still in use today, and although no where near on the same scale as the Panama Canal is still very impressive and a fine example of early civil and canal engineering.
Being a perfectionist Master myself and huge fan of your channel, the only mistake I can notice is the Capers used for Panama canal animations instead of Panamax vessels :) Keep up the great work!
It would be interesting to have some bidirectional water turbines in the conduits that empty the locks to generate energy when emptying. The same energy could be used to pump water upstream during the dry season.
I've been through the canal multiple times, why am I watching this?
Happy new year to all at sea away from family and the rest of us keep your self safe be happy
Happy New Year!
Huh. I knew more or less how locks worked, but I always figured that they just pumped the water in and out. I guess it makes sense that using gravity power would save a lot of power
Fantastic video !
May I recommend one on the same topic from the channel PracticalEngineering, I think it complements it well !
Small correction, the angle of the gates is to turn them from more of a horizontal beam into a compressive arch, but they don't prevent buckling. In fact, buckling is something that happens specifically due to compression.
The compressive arch just makes for a much easier mechanical design.
But even then, the gates are usually prismatic (rectangular) while the water pressure increases with depth. This means there's a rotation applied to the gate that makes everything complex again.