Somebody was playing games on you

Post #209,450 by ben_tilly 6/1/05 9:04:52 PM Reply	Somebody was playing games on you A given toilet swirls in a given direction based on the angle of the jets. This has an effect that completely overwhelms the Earth's rotation. Cheers, Ben I have come to believe that idealism without discipline is a quick road to disaster, while discipline without idealism is pointless. -- Aaron Ward (my brother)
Post #209,454 by boxley 6/1/05 9:50:37 PM Reply	having dug in the bowels of many a toilet they dont have jets, they have a gravity feed, lift up the top of your toilet tank, flush and observe, that aint a jet. It would be some game to change the direction of water flow inside an entire frigate just to impress the credulous. Lets wait to see if static and meerkat flush clockwise or anticlockwise. thanx, bill All tribal myths are true, for a given value of "true" Terry Pratchett [link\|http://boxleys.blogspot.com/\|http://boxleys.blogspot.com/] Any opinions expressed by me are mine alone, posted from my home computer, on my own time as a free american and do not reflect the opinions of any person or company that I have had professional relations with in the past 48 years. meep questions, help? [link\|mailto:pappas@catholic.org\|email pappas at catholic.org]
Post #209,456 by Another Scott 6/1/05 9:58:41 PM Reply	It probably has more to do with the toilet design. It may be that toilets in Australia have different swirling motions, but as Ben says, the Coriolis force is too weak to cause the toilet to behave differently on crossing the equator. [link\|http://www.snopes.com/science/coriolis.htm\|Bad Coriolis]. HTH. Cheers, Scott.
Post #209,459 by boxley 6/1/05 10:17:16 PM Reply	again let static and meerkat pull the top off their tank and ensure that it is a gravity feed like ours and see what direction clockwise or counter it goes. Im surprised that empiracle evidence is willing to be ignored in favor of google. thanx, bill All tribal myths are true, for a given value of "true" Terry Pratchett [link\|http://boxleys.blogspot.com/\|http://boxleys.blogspot.com/] Any opinions expressed by me are mine alone, posted from my home computer, on my own time as a free american and do not reflect the opinions of any person or company that I have had professional relations with in the past 48 years. meep questions, help? [link\|mailto:pappas@catholic.org\|email pappas at catholic.org]
Post #209,462 by Another Scott 6/1/05 10:25:30 PM Reply	Sure. But ye canna change the laws of physics! :-) [link\|http://www.physics.ohio-state.edu/~dvandom/Edu/newcor.html\|Getting Around The Coriolis Force]: 5.2. Water Going The Wrong Way Down The Sink In a kitchen sink, of course, speeds and time scales are much smaller than hours and miles. Water rushing down a drain flows at speeds on the order of a meter per second in most sinks, which are themselves less than a meter wide. Qualitatively, there doesn't seem to be much chance for deflection. Quantitatively, putting these numbers into Equation 1 results in an estimated change in rotation of only a fraction of a degree per second, and a very small fraction at that...less than an arc-second (1/3600th of a degree) per second over the course of the entire draining of the sink, ignoring additional effects caused by conservation of angular momentum and the like. Under extremely controlled conditions, this can cause water to flow out of a container counter-clockwise in the northern hemisphere and clockwise in the southern hemisphere, but your kitchen sink is not so controlled. Things like leftover spin from filling the sink (even when the water looks still, it's rotating slowly for a long time after it seems to stop), irregularities in the construction of the basin, convection currents if the water is warmer or colder than the basin, and so forth, can affect the direction water goes down the sink. Any one of these factors is usually more than enough to overwhelm the small contribution of the Coriolis effect in your kitchen sink or bathtub. Research in the 1960s showed that if you do carefully eliminate these factors, the Coriolis effect can be observed1,2. Water in the sink doesn't go far enough to trigger a noticeable north/south deflection. Most often, it simply spirals down the sink the way it went into the sink, and the same is true of things like the famous "demonstration" of the Coriolis effect shown at tourist traps along the Equator (especially since east/west deflection is absent!). Maybe there's a conspiracy to manufacture right-handed sinks in the Northern Hemisphere and left-handed sinks in the Southern Hemisphere? In any case, don't blame it on the Coriolis effect unless your sink is the size of a small ocean. Even if it goes the other way down under, that doesn't mean it's due to the Coriolis effect (or, in other words, due to the Earth's rotation). It's not - the Coriolis effect is too weak in a sink or toilet unless everything is carefully controlled. HTH. Cheers, Scott.
Post #209,475 by ben_tilly 6/1/05 11:36:50 PM Reply	Perhaps it isn't obvious to you... But I've had this discussion before, and did my research then. Why do you think that I'm so confident that if you look at multiple toilets you'll find ones that go opposite directions? Even a gravity toilet will have small imperfections that lead to the water flushing one way or another. I've seen this for myself. I also suggested a more complex experiment for you to see it as well. Why are you so supportive of the experimental method only when it is done by others? Cheers, Ben I have come to believe that idealism without discipline is a quick road to disaster, while discipline without idealism is pointless. -- Aaron Ward (my brother)
Post #209,534 by bionerd 6/2/05 9:29:55 AM Reply	You actually spent time researching this? It's a TOILET!
Post #209,561 by admin 6/2/05 11:01:17 AM Reply	It's not just a toilet, it's a belief system. Ben delights in testing such things and destroying myths. :-) Regards, -scott anderson "Welcome to Rivendell, Mr. Anderson..."
Post #209,582 by Steve Lowe 6/2/05 11:33:33 AM Reply	ICLRPD (new thread) Created as new thread #209581 titled [link\|/forums/render/content/show?contentid=209581\|ICLRPD] -- Steve
Post #209,710 by static 6/2/05 8:26:43 PM Reply	ICLRPD (new thread) Created as new thread #209709 titled [link\|/forums/render/content/show?contentid=209709\|ICLRPD] Save Fintlewoodlewix
Post #209,544 by boxley 6/2/05 9:55:10 AM Reply	okay, we have 10 toilets in this building I will flush them all. If I see just one counter clockwise flush I will retract. thanx, bill All tribal myths are true, for a given value of "true" Terry Pratchett [link\|http://boxleys.blogspot.com/\|http://boxleys.blogspot.com/] Any opinions expressed by me are mine alone, posted from my home computer, on my own time as a free american and do not reflect the opinions of any person or company that I have had professional relations with in the past 48 years. meep questions, help? [link\|mailto:pappas@catholic.org\|email pappas at catholic.org]
Post #209,555 by drewk 6/2/05 10:31:49 AM Reply	ICLRPD (new thread) Created as new thread #209554 titled [link\|/forums/render/content/show?contentid=209554\|ICLRPD] === Purveyor of Doc Hope's [link\|http://DocHope.com\|fresh-baked dog biscuits and pet treats]. [link\|http://DocHope.com\|http://DocHope.com]
Post #209,591 by Andrew Grygus 6/2/05 11:40:54 AM Reply	Invalid I just went and flushed mine, and a casual inspection of flow showed that all watter jetting down from the rim was aimed clockwise all the way around to insure there is a strong swirl. I would place bets that all American toilets are made just that way. It's possible some crank designer has done one with a counter-clockwise flow, but the Earth's spin has absolutely nothing to do with it. [link\|http://www.aaxnet.com\|AAx]
Post #209,593 by drewk 6/2/05 11:43:43 AM Reply	Also invalid because ... If the variations are between manufacturers, odds are all the ones in your building are the same anyway. === Purveyor of Doc Hope's [link\|http://DocHope.com\|fresh-baked dog biscuits and pet treats]. [link\|http://DocHope.com\|http://DocHope.com]
Post #209,653 by admin 6/2/05 2:47:59 PM Reply	We have a counter-clockwise one here. Haven't tried the others. Regards, -scott anderson "Welcome to Rivendell, Mr. Anderson..."
Post #209,660 by boxley 6/2/05 3:00:49 PM Reply	good enough I retract my statement about earth rotation affecting toilet flow. thanx, bill All tribal myths are true, for a given value of "true" Terry Pratchett [link\|http://boxleys.blogspot.com/\|http://boxleys.blogspot.com/] Any opinions expressed by me are mine alone, posted from my home computer, on my own time as a free american and do not reflect the opinions of any person or company that I have had professional relations with in the past 48 years. meep questions, help? [link\|mailto:pappas@catholic.org\|email pappas at catholic.org]
Post #209,488 by static 6/2/05 12:37:47 AM Reply	Actually, we can't perform that experiment. If you go to [link\|http://www.howstuffworks.com/\|How Stuff Works] and navigate to [link\|http://home.howstuffworks.com/toilet.htm\|How Toilets Work], you will find a description of a typical cistern and pan in North America (that is where the writer is located, after all). According to Marshall Brain's article, toilet pans completely empty upon flushing, then refill as the cistern is refilled. This is due to their being a feed from the cistern into the siphon as well as into the rim. Australian toilets are not constructed to that design. When flushed, Australian toilets put all of the cistern water into the rim. The result is a continuous movement of water down the bowl and through the S-bend for some seconds. The pan does not empty and then refill. Coriolis doesn't have a chance. Wade. Save Fintlewoodlewix

Welcome to IWETHEY!