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xkcd #3004: Wells (xkcd.com)

submitted 1 month ago by [email protected] to c/xkcd

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well well well, if it isn't a new xkcd

You do have to be careful, though--sometimes, instead of water, you hit this free fuel that you can sell for a lot of money instead.

https://explainxkcd.com/3004/

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[–] [email protected] 42 points 1 month ago (2 children)

I always assumed that some poor schmuck was trying to dig a hole because he needed a hole and the fucking thing kept flooding. He was pissed until his buddy realized that they had stumbled upon a magic portal to a lake which they could use to get water from.

[–] weariedfae 10 points 1 month ago

We've known that groundwater existed for verifiably more than 7,000 years (the age of the oldest well ever found). Springs and seeps are easily observable groundwater coming up out of the ground. I seriously doubt it was stumbled into by accident. We probably started by modifying springs for our use and then dug in other places to see if we could tap into the same source.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I'd say it's likely that wells were independently invented multiple times. Some may have been luck, others ingenuity.

[–] deltapi 1 points 1 month ago

The fact that people were still paying for 'professional' dowsing services as recently as 20 years ago says a lot too. Many people genuinely thought that wells needed to hit a specific spot to get water, the comprehension of how water tables work was certainly lacking.