ok, Im really bored, and just wondering does the water in the toilets in the southern hemisphere really swirl counterclockwise?

Nope, I checked a few years abck when I was in Ecuador, I am pretty sure the toilet designer can control which way it swirls.

Checked this out on:

Snopes: Coriolis Effect

The answer was FALSE ... Coriolis has no effect on water spiraling down drains.

While a toilet could be made to swirl anyway the designer wants because the flow direction from the tank can be at an angle, a sink drain is a different matter. In the absense of an overiding force, the Coreolis Force determines directil of swirl. At the equator, the net Cereolis force cancels out, so water tends to straight down drains.

And we are still in the first month of winter... wow... whats next? If a tree falls and no one hears it....


Boy i hope Punxsutawney Phil sees no shadow this year!

Dave, I used to lay over in Sao Paulo, Brazil quite a bit. I too had the same buring question, keeping me awake at night...so I tried the sink, toilet and tub. As previously stated, if the toilet shoots water at an angle, that's the way it swirls. BUT in the TUB and Sink, if you plug it up and let the water level go up several inches, you can indeed see a little vortex spinning the -other way- when you let the water out, at least that's what it looked like to me.

This thread is rapidly going down the drain.
I almost ran downstairs to fill the sink and check, but last I remember the water forms a vortex going in a clockwise direction. Is this opposite to up North ?
And, your Northern Winter being the cause of threads like this one, I thought I`d add what some folks do in winter, though I`m glad it`s not me. iceman

in theory it works but in practice the movements in the water, the design of the sink, is it perfectly level etc. are all much much stronger than the weak coriolis force, so in tests it never works

In the movie "Shooter" the lead charcter talks about factoring in the coriolis effect for really long shots. Something I had never thought of, and I suppose its true, at least it makes sense. Nothing to do with this thread, I just thought it was neat.

So at the poles...? <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />

Well the last time I was at the pole, (putting on my red suit for Christmas), all the water swished straight up into the air instead of swirling downwards??? (The "aurora" effect??) And if you don’t believe me go there and look – remember photos or it didn’t happen!

Darrell, since you are in the southern hemisphere, can you tell me which direction the water swirls in your toilet? Kwiksilver in South Africa has already reported clockwise.

And also, if you have a dog, what direction does the dog circle in when lying down to go to sleep? Our dog circles counterclockwise, just as our toilet does (and just as have all the toilets and dogs we have ever owned).

I guess we could rip out our toilet and take it and our dog to South America and see whether they go the other direction. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif" alt="" />

Mary
Funny. We have a Lab too, but he circles counterclockwise before he goes to the toilet. Being Lab's, they are from very much the northern hemisphere.
Anyone got a Blue Heeler?

Other assymetries exist in nature. Nothing yet shown proves that Coriolis is the driving mechanism in draining water. What drives other assymetries?

How about assymetric life forms? Do abalone shells wrap in oppoiste directions north or south of the equator? You boys in OZ probably have an abalone shell around. Which way does it swirl? My California abalone shell, looking at the pretty inside, swirls outward counter clockwise.

How about the leaves of the begonia plant?

I seriously doubt if molecular assymetry can be attributed to Coriolis effect. D-glucose rules North or South. Perhaps identical global chemical assymetry results from similarly polarized light hitting the entire earth's surface, an identical polarization induced by a yet unknown atmospheric mechanism which.....?

Hmmmm....more coffee needed. Or maybe less. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />

yeah...less.

There it is!!! Empirical evidence...Mary and David's dogs and our Border Collie/something else mix rotate counterclockwise prior to the important things in life. Bordie Collies originated in England and Scotland and her other half is definitely some kind of retriev-ador. NH rules.

Hey, do your dogs sleep 17 hours a day too? <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Yeah in South America I become left handed... <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" />

Umm..water is solid at the poles...so it doesn't go down the drain.

(NOTE: THIS IS NOT AN INVITATION TO START ANOTHER G.W. THREAD!!!)

That's an easy one. It just depends on your definition of "sound." According to dictionary.com: "the sensation produced by stimulation of the organs of hearing by vibrations transmitted through the air or other medium."

So, by that definition, if there are no ears to translate the vibrations of the air, then no, the tree doesn't make a sound. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />

Yes, winter sucks.

As for the Coriolis effect, don't hurricanes spin the opposite way down under too? Of course, they're called cyclones or something, aren't they?

Wikipedia seems to clear this up: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coriolis_effect

As mentioned by others here, the geometry of the toilet affects the flow more than anything else. Per the Coriolis effect only, it should be actually be flowing COUNTER-clockwise in the north...

Mike

Mary the water in every bath, sink, toilet, in every house/building that I have ever owned, (although I don’t make a habit of holding my head in the toilet when flushing, but Hey, if that is your thing ------) has always, and does, swirl in a clockwise motion.
As to dogs, I have bred dogs for many years, mainly Boxers, and I have to say that although predominantly my dogs tend to turn three times clockwise before settling down to sleep they do at times turn the other way, at times even turning clockwise three times then immediately reversing for three turns anti clockwise before settling
I have many varieties of Southern, Indian, and Pacific Ocean Abalone shell here and they all have formed with the swirl clockwise