Comments on: What Hemisphere You Are in Does Not Affect the Way Water Spins Down Your Drain

By: Daven

Daven — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 23:24:44 +0000

@Jack: If you wrote that what hemisphere you are in does not affect the way water spins down the drain/toilet, than you wrote the correct facts.

By: Jack

Jack — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 22:39:28 +0000

im a fith grader and at my school we are doing an expimernt abot this and i wrote my report then i cheacked this again and forgot to look at the reviews and turns out i wrote a great report on the WRONG FACTS THANK YOU

By: Daven

Daven — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 05:29:52 +0000

@Bananas: And your sources for this are?

By: Joe Bananas

Joe Bananas — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 02:08:51 +0000

Nope. The coriolis effect can indeed affect the direction of angular momentum in draining water.

Unlike clapping in a tornado or the flap of a butterfly wing in a hurricane, water draining in a sink is an amplifier of angular momentum.

The tiniest angular momentum differential between opposite sides of the drain will become amplified by the the inertial component of spin. Spin influence becomes cumulative and amplified. And self-sustaining.

You can observe this yourself when you see that water spinning around the drain spins so fast that centrifugal force holds the water up against the sides of the toilet bowl and inhibits draining. That causes a slowdown of spin and re-establishes drainage, but now a balance is reached and maintained, where spin and drainage is maintained at a steady rate until all the water is gone.

Among other things, this means that – yep, Coriolis effect, however slight, does influence the spin direction of draining water in the hemispheres.

Coriolis effect also makes flushing toilets marginally inefficient. Too much water is wasted going around in circles around the bowl when it should be flushing stuff straight down the drain.

By: BlackNarcissus

BlackNarcissus — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 00:18:07 +0000

It seems the problem people have with accepting this explanation is very similar to the problem they have with global warming. Eg. “But we had a really cold winter this year – and the last one” or “I don’t notice it getting any warmer – global warming must be a myth”. Scientific experimentation trumps individual, one-off, small sample experience – if we can’t trust science on these questions it becomes every man/woman’s opinion for themselves. I’ve got the humility to accept when data proves me wrong – I hope most other people do too.

By: Connecting Bloggers » Blog Archive » Why the Toilet is Sometimes Called a “John”

Mon, 09 Aug 2010 22:03:31 +0000

[...] What hemisphere you are in does not affect the way water spins down your drain. [...]

By: misterpold

misterpold — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 21:20:50 +0000

I tried this out in my bathroom and I live in the northern hemisphere. The shower water spins clockwise, but the toilet and sink spin counter-clockwise. Case closed for me.

By: halinka

halinka — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 23:56:21 +0000

lol @ jim …
it is amusing how many people are not able to acknowledge the fact that something they believed in their whole lives is proven (by science, math and logic) to be not true at all. and we’re talking about stupid, pointless thing as direction of water spinning in drains.. now try to talk some sense into religious people.

By: Connecting Bloggers » Blog Archive » What Hemisphere You Are in Does Not Affect the Way Water Spins Down Your Drain

Mon, 26 Jul 2010 23:04:43 +0000

[...] Originally posted here: What Hemisphere You Are in Does Not Affect the Way Water Spins Down Your Drain [...]

By: Fabio!

Fabio! — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 02:37:53 +0000

all those who are saying it’s true seem to be ignoring all the variables that account for the different directions the water goes ie. what daven has already stated; the direction the jets are pointed, the shape of the container etc. etc. Listen….. physics has already proven that the hemisphere you are in has nothing to do with the which way your water drains, so if you want to continue believing in things that have already been disproven, enjoy your time at sea, because your going fall off the edge of your flat world!! But the good news is, as your falling you can finally swallow all the gum you want, because you wont have to worry about it taking 7 years to pass through your system!!!!