Additives for water wars

For support, refilling, personal, strategic, and misc. equipment used during a water fight.
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SSCBen
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Additives for water wars

Post by SSCBen » Mon Jan 04, 2016 1:17 pm

I've been curious lately about what sort of additives people might consider using in water wars. isoaker has said in the past that this sort of discussion is not allowed, but that was 10 years ago, and it seems to me that we have a variety of safe options.

Non-toxic colored dye seems harmless and could be useful for tagging purposes. Dye already seems to be used with water cannons for riot control, and it appears to pose no safety risks by itself. The water cannons themselves, however, appear to be dangerous when protesters are shot in the wrong areas.

Salt also seems to be generally harmless, and could even be naturally occurring, so banning it wouldn't make a lot of sense to me. There is the possibility of corrosion of the water blaster from high salinity, but hard water poses the same threat and no one proposes banning that. Salt could slightly increase the surface tension, which would prevent stream breakup usually, and it also could increase the viscosity a fair bit (see figure 3), which could reduce turbulence.

Various polymers are known to increase the range of fire hoses (up to 40%!) because they reduce friction from the fire hose, and they might change how the stream breaks up too. Apparently at least some of these polymers are non-toxic and sold as laxatives. While I wouldn't propose eating it straight up if you didn't need the medicine, I don't think these are unsafe when diluted.

Glycerin increases the viscosity of the water, which would reduce turbulence, and is recognized by the FDA as generally safe. It exists in food, cosmetics, and pharmaceuticals, too, so you probably have ingested some before without noticing. I tested glycerin before (can't remember exactly, but I think it was like 95% water and 5% glycerin) and found that it increased the range of Supercannon II from 73 feet to 77 feet, though I only did one shot with glycerin, so it might increase the range more or less on average.

It seems to me that there are plenty of other completely non-toxic additives which could increase viscosity as well, for example, honey would probably work nicely (though be expensive).

What's your opinion on allowing additives in water wars? Note that I'm not necessarily advocating for allowing these, just saying that they exist and seem to be safe.

And do you have any other ideas for additives?

TheSoaker
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Re: Water additives in water wars

Post by TheSoaker » Mon Jan 04, 2016 6:58 pm

Ben wrote:




"Various polymers are known to increase the range"


"some of these polymers are non-toxic and sold as laxatives"


isoaker please make an isoak'D about this! lol
super soaker cps 2000......SUPER SOAKER CPS 2000!!!!!!!!!1!!!1!!one

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SEAL
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Re: Additives for water wars

Post by SEAL » Mon Jan 04, 2016 9:04 pm

^Too bad iSoaker doesn't seem to hang around here much anymore. But there's a lot of potential there:

"Man, I'm thirsty. Wish I packed water. Hmm, I guess I'll just drink from my reservoir. Joey's 2700 lasts forever so it won't affect much."
Joey: "WAIT, NO!"

I would be fine with allowing additives, obviously as long as they're safe and don't melt your skin off. In fact, if it's shown that they do give a significant range/lamination boost, I'd probably use them in serious battles, as long as they aren't expensive. It would be interesting if additives suddenly became popular at wars.
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SSCBen
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Re: Additives for water wars

Post by SSCBen » Tue Jan 05, 2016 9:54 am

Panel 1: (Showing people wearing lab coats and carrying clipboards shooting a fire hose in a warehouse.) In the 1960s and 1970s, scientists discovered that adding certain polymers to water can increase the range of fire hoses dramatically. This fact was brought to the attention of the water war community in 2016.

Panel 2: (Following SEAL.) Frank: Man, I'm thirsty. Wish I packed water. Hmm, I guess I'll just drink from my reservoir. Joey's 2700 lasts forever so it won't affect much.

Panel 3: Joey: WAIT, NO!

Panel 4: (Joey standing outside the bathroom with Frank's voice coming out from the bathroom.) You didn't tell me that this additive was a laxative!

HBWW
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Re: Additives for water wars

Post by HBWW » Tue Jan 05, 2016 12:14 pm

Few thoughts here:

- Discussion of additives is currently welcome, as far as I'm concerned. (Current forum administration is more open to discussion of some topics.) Let us know if you see any rule posts that need to be updated.

- I don't have ideas for additives, since I don't know them well.

- I would most definitely allow them for water wars, as long as they are safe and are used in safe concentrations. Given some of the nasty water we may or may not have filled from on the field, the threshold for it is quite high. The only times that safe additives may not be allowed is if loaning a blaster from someone who does not want any of these things getting pumped in.

- The logistics can be a tricky thing. On the field, every piece of gear affects your ability to move and play. Lowering your mobility is like giving every opponent a free effective combat range increase and every little bit counts. The stream enhancements from additives need to be worth the equipment and logistical requirements.
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SSCBen
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Re: Additives for water wars

Post by SSCBen » Tue Jan 05, 2016 1:02 pm

Good point about the logistics of using additives. Let's consider polyethylene glycol (the laxative polymer) as an example. Apparently it comes as a powder. I could see someone carrying around a film canister of the power and mixing it into their tank before a round. I don't think this would be particularly inconvenient. And if it increases range by 40%, that'd be going from 50 feet to 70 feet, which seems easily worth a film canister to me. Likely the increase is less, as a lot of it was due to the friction from the fire hose, which doesn't exist in our case.

For salt, seems you'll need a lot to have a major effect, so this might not be practical. The effect of glycerin wasn't so great, either. The polymer might the only practical one.

This gives me some ideas for special rounds too. It would be interesting if film canisters of the powder were randomly placed on the field before a round. That way, if you find some it's like getting a temporary power boost. Almost like video games, actually.

Edit: Another thing to look into is the environmental effects of the additive. It might leave some residue after drying, or be harmful to plants or other wildlife. Worth looking into.

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isoaker
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Re: Additives for water wars

Post by isoaker » Tue Jan 05, 2016 4:19 pm

As I no longer moderate/administrate these boards, whether I would or would not permit topics is completely irrelevant. As for my reduced posting here, it is simply due to a difference in interests. No offense is meant nor has any been taken - this active community is great and I hope it grows, but I contribute best to Soakerdom elsewhere. I still drop by, of course.

:cool:
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HBWW
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Re: Additives for water wars

Post by HBWW » Wed Jan 06, 2016 3:59 pm

If something as small as a film canister can contain enough additives, it'd be easier, but keep in mind that some games stretch on, and these additives will need to be handy while players fill from various sources. Of course, it's also possible to just fill the first reservoir/PC with it and use "regular" water for the rest of the game.

The environmental effects should definitely be looked at. I'd expect minimal impact, but I guess one can never tell for sure.

iSoaker, good to see you're still around to drop by every now and then. We'd still like to see you around at one of our events someday; don't forget! =p
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