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[Tonic]

Discovered a stupid dwarf trick with hydrodynamics last night.  In the interests of !!Science!!, I felt compelled to share.

I wanted a well on my fiber processing level, so I dug a tunnel one z-level below it, and then connected it via ramps to the aquifer five or so z-levels above.  The water filled up the tunnel, and then I channeled from the fiber level down to the water tunnel and built a well.  I didn't realize this at the time, but if I'd already channeled the well hole, I'd have flooded the fortress.  That happened later.

Here's what happened:  the water didn't look for a place to path because it was already filled up to 7/7 before the well-hole was channeled.  It was only when enough was drunk from the well, and the water went below 7/7, that the water in the five-story vertical column looked for a place to go, which was up out of the well and into all my cloth stockpiles.

I intend to apply this principle:  once my nobles get annoying enough, I will seal them into a warren with food but no drink, and a well as I've described.  Once they consume enough water, the whole room will flood and kill them.  There are of course more efficient ways to do this, but it seems more Dwarfly to do it in the style of a Bond villain:  overcomplicated and unnecessary.

[Fanklok]

If your going to do it like Urist McBondvillian it will require sharks and slow moving lasers or laser mounted sharks.

[pbheadtemp]

or just hold the Noble in question for a ransom of 1 million dwarfbux!

[o_O[WTFace]]

So... the aquifer didn't remember to keep making more water until some empty space appeared in the pipe due to someone drinking water? 

[petersohn]

I had a similar experience back in 40d. I built a water tower high up, and a canal system at the bottom of it below my fortress. On my fortress level, I built a goblin trap that kills them with water. As it seemed natural, I dag a shaft in the floor to my canal system, allowing the water pressure to fill the drowning chamber, then seal it with a hatch. The water filled up to the hatch, as normal, but when I opened it, it didn't fill the chamber. Later I redesigned it so that I let the water up to the level of the chamber and used a door to allow the water out. It worked.

[Diacritic]

So... the aquifer didn't remember to keep making more water until some empty space appeared in the pipe due to someone drinking water?

Sort of.  More that the 5z column of water was under pressure, and attempting to path the whole time, but apparently couldn't see the space above the well as a potential target.  Probably the path-checks for flowing vs. non flowing water are different, but as soon as the water under the well dropped to 6/7 the water was "flowing" again.