Ok, I've waited long enough.

 ...

 WC> They've got those domes already down there two of them!
 WC> They've got the drilling mud already right there.

 WC> You put the larger dome over the wellhead and feed the
 WC> drilling mud into the dome.

 WC> The circumference of the domes size being larger than the
 WC> wellhead gives you the equivalent of mechanical advantage
 WC> but via hydraulics in direct proportion to the differences
 WC> in the area between the area of the pipe to the dome.

 WC> It's EXACTLY how a hydraulic jack works.

 Actually, no. That's exactly opposite to how a hydraulic jack
 works.

 The mechanical advantage comes from the small piston having
 pressure put on it, transferred through the fluid to the large
 piston.

 Not from the large to the small.

 If you have a one square inch piston, and put 100 lbs of
 pressure on it, like a 100 lb weight sitting on it, the pressure
 is transmitted to all parts of the fluid as 100 PSI. If you have
 a 5 sq in piston in the circuit, that 100psi is transferred to
 all 5 square inches. For a total pressure of 500 lbs.

 There is still no free lunch, that one sq inch piston has to
 move the fluid driving that 5 sq inch piston. To do that it has
 to move 5 times as much fluid as the surface of the 1 sq in
 piston. A bit simplified.

 IOW, the 1 sq in piston has to move 5 inches for each inch the 5
 sq in piston. To lift your care 10 inches the small piston has
 to move 50 inches.

 Ok, it can't move 50 inches, so it moves 1 inch 50 times. The
 jack has a one way valve, which allows you to move the weight by
 moving the piston a little bit, then pulling back and doing it
 again. Same length of stroke, but over multiple passes.

 Oh, and finally, that mechanical advantage is mechanical to
 mechanical through the hydraulic fluid. It doesn't work at all
 with hydraulic to hydraulic. Then the 100PSI is just transfered
 equally throughout the system, no gain at all anywhere.

BOB KLAHN bob.klahn{at}sev.org   http://home.toltbbs.com/bobklahn

... One path between two worlds... Fire, walk with me.
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