“ Do n’t combust any bridges . ” “ Put a air sock in it . ” So many design of talking to evoke actions that , while physically potential , are not always good idea . Others are harder to pin down . We may unsympathetically tell someone to cry us a river , but could they really do it ? That ’s what scholar at the University of Leicester decide to find out . They published their results this month in their school’sJournal of Interdisciplinary Science Topics .
These days , the parole “ shout out me a river ” arecommon idiom . But unlike many idiom , this one has a clear bloodline : a ballad maker named Arthur Hamilton . Hamilton was work on a new line in the early 1950s and desire to evoke a certain vibe ( acerb ) , but he involve the right words .
“ I had never heard the phrase , ” hetoldtheWall Street Journalin 2010 . " I just care the combination of words … Instead of ' Eat your affection out ' or ' I ’ll get even with you , ' it sounded like a estimable , smart retort to somebody who had hurt your feeling or break your heart . "
At first , the vocal seemed designate for bankruptcy ; no few than 38 artist turn down to register it . But in 1955 , idle words - papa vocaliser Julie London acquire it on , and it assume over the charts . Since then , it ’s been cover C of times , and the phrase enter the American lexicon . " Its oecumenical utilisation as a put - down phrasal idiom has continued to delight and amaze me , " Hamilton said . " Whenever my wife and I are watching a plastic film or tv set show , and the phrase is used , we laugh and gently plug each other . "
It must have crossed the pond , too , because two students at UL ’s Centre for Interdisciplinary Science decided to put it to the trial .
Leah Ashley and Robbie Roe startle by identifying the shortest river in the world , to give their theoretical weeper the best chance of meeting the minimum tear production requirement . That title belongs to Montana’sRoe River , which is just 201 feet long and discharges between 156 and 193 million gallons of water per day .
By equivalence , the intermediate human binge has a volume of 0.0062 milliliters . Ashley and Roe quickly realized that there is no means a individual person could exclaim even the flyspeck river . The stallion of population of Earth could n’t even do it , even if we were all really , really upset at the same time .
What about something a little smaller , like an Olympic - size swimming kitty ? That ’s something we might be capable to manage . A regulation pool , the authors spell , is 50 x 25 x 2 m , with a capacitance of 2,500,000 liter . If each of the roughly 7.4 billion people on this planet cried 55 rip apiece , we could fill up that pool together , in a unearthly , sad triumph of international cooperation .
Cheryl Hurkett , the author ’ instructor , was beguiled with their theme . “ I am always pleased to see my scholar engaging so sky-high with the subject area , ” shesaidin a press statement . “ I boost them to be as originative as potential with their open selection as long as they can back it up with hard scientific facts , theory , and computation ! "
