>When I think of acceleration, I think of a gradual speeding up like a car.

This is I think the key point of confusion. Acceleration can happen if very short distances and times, and in fact some of the largest acceleration values happen in extremely short distances and times.

For a basic demonstration, take a penny and hold it a meter over the floor, then let it go. It falls to the floor, and stops. (I'm going to ignore air resistance here)

When you let go, it immediately accelerates downwards at 9.8m/s^(2), or 1G. This continues until it hits the floor. It will be traveling downwards at a speed of about 4.4m/s after traveling one meter.

When it hits the floor, it decelerates, or more accurately, it is accelerating upwards. Now, how much it accelerates is going to depend on what your floor is made of, and how long it takes for it to come to a stop. Lets say in takes 0.1s to come to a stop, from initial contact.

For your penny to go from 4.4m/s to 0m/s in 0.1 second is actually a pretty big acceleration. 44m/s^(2), or about 4.5Gs.

If you somehow had a magic floor that could get that penny to stop in .001s, that penny would experience 450Gs!

Another example of extreme acceleration in a short space and time would be a bullet fired out of a gun. Initially, the bullet has a velocity of zero. When the gun is fired, the bullet experiences a very large acceleration, until it exits the barrel of the gun.

In short, you can get some really big Gs in a small space and time. This ride is moving around in a small space, and you can easily get 1.5gs in that space.

Plants turn water and carbon dioxide into glucose and oxygen. Forgive me for using superscript instead of subscript as I don't know how to do subscript.

Carbon Dioxide is CO^(2).

Water is H^(2)O.

Glucose is C^(6)H^(12)O^(6).

Oxygen is O^(2).

6CO^(2) + 6H^(2)O -> C^(6)H^(12)O^(6) + 6O^(2)

So, for the moment, the water is 'gone.' It's now a part of a sugar molecule. Plants also make more complicated molecules, various starches and proteins, etc. But the core idea is the same.

Now, when the plant gets eaten by an animal, the reverse happens. The glucose and other molecules get combined with oxygen, and water and carbon dioxide are released.

C^(6)H^(12)O^(6) + 6O^(2) -> 6CO^(2) + 6H^(2)O

The water is now 'back' in the environment. The same chemical reaction occurs not only when the plant is eaten, but also when the plant dies and rots. When a plant rots, it's basically being eaten by bacteria and fungi. The same chemical reaction will also happen when a plant burns, like in a forest fire.

So, generally speaking, the water and carbon dioxide are only bound up temporarily. The only way that the water and carbon dioxide stay locked away is if the biomatter gets buried in a way that it doesn't rot. This is the origin of fossil fuels.

Technically, the amount of water on the surface of the planet went down gradually over millions of years with the gradual deposition of fossil fuels, and up with recent mass burning. However the amount of water in fossil fuels is relatively inconsequential, when compared to the amount of water in the ocean.

>Cholera is a bacteria, not a virus, and can’t be treated with meds.

Because cholera is a bacteria, that means it CAN be treated with antibiotics. It is generally not though, as if you get water and electrolytes, you generally get over it fairly quick. Antibiotics won't shorten the length much, and can cause side effects. Only severe cases get antibiotics.