Editing 1649: Pipelines

{{comic
| number    = 1649
| date      = February 29, 2016
| title     = Pipelines
| image     = pipelines.png
| titletext = In the future, every single pipeline will lead to the bowl of a giant blender, and we'll all just show up with a bucket each day to take our share of the resulting smoothie.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|First cut by an infrequent contributor -- please help improve it}}

In a similar vein to What If? #147, where the entire water flow over the Niagara Falls is imagined to flow through a straw (7 mm diameter, and to disastrous results), Randall imagines what size pipes are necessary to carry US domestic production/consumption of various fluids if the flow rate were fixed at 4 meters per second.  Randall notes that "many pipes would overlap", owing to the fact that consumption of one item (e.g. corn syrup or petroleum) would be due to the production of another shown (e.g. soda or gasoline, respectively).

As usual with xkcd, the absurdity -- and improbability -- of routing the entirety of each fluid through a single pipe at any point is the source of humor.  In addition, some "fluids" shown are rather viscous (e.g. peanut butter, Silly Putty, meat), highly adhesive (e.g. maple syrup), thermally impractical (e.g. glass, cheese, ice cream and yogurt), or just plain zany (e.g. saliva).

One omission noted is "soup", which is partly expected due to White Hat's use of a "soup outlet" as an entrepreneur [someone please find reference].  It is probably a larger pipeline than salsa and possibly even ketchup.

In addition to the What If? article, the relevancy of pipelines, particularly regarding public water, is heightened due to the public health crisis in Flint, Michigan, due to (mis-)management of their public water system.  Studies have shown that temporary use of the Flint River as a water source caused corrosive water to leach lead from old pipes, causing lead poisoning in many residents, particularly children; other ill effects in addition to lead have been noted.  The crisis has lead to a public outcry against the state "emergency financial management" team appointed and supervised by the state executive (Gov. Rick Snyder and staff) and an outpouring of support from nearby communities such as Metro Detroit via bottled water donations to Flint residents.


==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript}}

{{comic discussion}}