
The World's Shortcut: How the Panama Canal Works [video] - CaliforniaKarl
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgsxapE27NU
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snowwrestler
One of the surprising things about the Panama Canal is how the sea level can
differ between the Atlantic and Pacific sides. This depends not just on tides
but on salinity, weather, and even differences in gravity. The Panama Canal
has locks to lift and lower boats through the central lake, but even if the
entire canal was built at mean sea level, it would still need locks to
accommodate the (ever changing) difference between Atlantic and Pacific sea
level at any given point in time.

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plibither8
Then I'm inclined to believe this would have been a problem when building any
canal across a considerably large landmass - such as the Suez Canal. Is it
exclusive to the Panama Canal only?

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a1369209993
According to the second paragraph at
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suez_Canal](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suez_Canal),
it has a continuous current through the various segments, depending on tide
and season. Presumably the water levels in the Mediterranean and Red Seas are
close enough that the current isn't a problem in practice.

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dfeojm-zlib
Due to climate change, there are now many shortcuts across the Arctic in the
summertime.

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jlgaddis
If this is the video I'm thinking of (I can't watch it at the moment), on the
"Half as Interesting" (?) channel, I'd suggest checking out the other videos
on this channel as well as the "Wendover Productions" channel (both by the
same guy, AFAICT) if you found this one interesting.

I just discovered these two channels in the last week or so and there's a lot
of interesting (to me) videos on them.

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CaliforniaKarl
This video is a Wendover Productions video. But, indeed, both channels come
from the same source! Generally, Wendover videos are longer and more serious,
while the 'HAI' videos are more light-hearted.

