The Equator

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

Explain to me in words I can understand why it is that water goes clockwise down the plughole one side of the equator, anti-clockwise the other and straight down on the equator itself.

Someone did explain this to me once but she had big boobies and I looked at them instead of listening.

― Mikey G (Mikey G), Thursday, 20 November 2003 12:24 (twenty-one years ago) link

Whether you're north of, south of, or squatting right on the equator makes no difference to the way water disappears down your plughole.

― Eyeball Kicks (Eyeball Kicks), Thursday, 20 November 2003 12:28 (twenty-one years ago) link

http://www.ems.psu.edu/~fraser/Bad/BadCoriolis.html

― Eyeball Kicks (Eyeball Kicks), Thursday, 20 November 2003 12:30 (twenty-one years ago) link

so The Simpsons has lied to me again?!

― stevem (blueski), Thursday, 20 November 2003 12:30 (twenty-one years ago) link

Yes it does. You drain water one foot either side of the equator and it will go down the plughole in opposite directions. There is no whirlpool created directly over the equator.

I've seen it happen, but don't understand the science.

― Mikey G (Mikey G), Thursday, 20 November 2003 12:33 (twenty-one years ago) link

I've seen it done on a travel programme on telly. I'm no scientist though - I can't explain.

― Madchen (Madchen), Thursday, 20 November 2003 12:33 (twenty-one years ago) link

this was debunked in the fortean times abt two months ago

(haha "debunked in the fortean times": yes to chupacabras and antigravity, no to bathplug reversal)

― mark s (mark s), Thursday, 20 November 2003 12:59 (twenty-one years ago) link

Please explain how I saw it with my own eyes! (on telly)

― Madchen (Madchen), Thursday, 20 November 2003 13:06 (twenty-one years ago) link

If it was on that Michael Palin show Madchen then it's explained at some smug length in the link above.

― Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Thursday, 20 November 2003 13:09 (twenty-one years ago) link

video trickery innit

― mark s (mark s), Thursday, 20 November 2003 13:10 (twenty-one years ago) link

I don't think it was debunked as such; it just said that the coriolis effect was only 1/600th as strong as it would need to be. However, the water has to rotate *one* way or other, so I would guess that in very very small percentage terms it does make a difference to your bathwater, assuming said bathwater is in a stable, symmetrical state etc.

― Markelby (Mark C), Thursday, 20 November 2003 13:12 (twenty-one years ago) link

There should be some non-scientists who get to decide which wrong things get debunked - the plughole stuff gives innocent pleasure to millions of pub bores and it's a shame to lose it entirely.

― Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Thursday, 20 November 2003 13:12 (twenty-one years ago) link

I thought the link was bollocks because it goes on about toilets flushing a certain way because that's the way the water goes in. Well, if it's going out at the same time as it's coming in, it will, duh.

Sniff. I don't care what you say.

― Madchen (Madchen), Thursday, 20 November 2003 13:15 (twenty-one years ago) link

pub bores raise their standards!

http://www.mcn.org/1/Miracles/images/BLEEDINGSTAT.jpg

― mark s (mark s), Thursday, 20 November 2003 13:28 (twenty-one years ago) link

(phenom pictured caused by vibrations in weak nuclear force: a genus 2 wormhole opens up, causing m-brane matter to macro-ooze into our pseudo-manifold) (obv)

― mark s (mark s), Thursday, 20 November 2003 13:38 (twenty-one years ago) link

I saw it with my own eyes at Mitad del Mundo in Ecuador (along with hundreds of others). I reiterate that water will go straight down without any whirlpool effect directly over the equator and a foot either side will produce clockwise and anti-clockwise rotations.

I understand the debunking theory but I still saw it happen.

― Mikey G (Mikey G), Thursday, 20 November 2003 14:04 (twenty-one years ago) link

How did you manage to determine the latitude of the equator to within a foot?

― Eyeball Kicks (Eyeball Kicks), Thursday, 20 November 2003 14:11 (twenty-one years ago) link

Personally I didn't. Obviously.

The town mentioned above makes a big deal (and a lot of tourism revenue) out of straddling the equator. A cord of red rope defines the equator. It can't be a fixed line because (apparently) the equator moves a couple of centimeters a year.

If you're asking whether I checked the latitude of the rope to the equator, then no I didn't. Sometimes you have to take things at face value. Especially girls with becoming chests (as mentioned above).

― Mikey G (Mikey G), Thursday, 20 November 2003 14:20 (twenty-one years ago) link

Ecuador doesn't have seasons. Ecuador doesn't have seasons.

And can they see both the North Star and the Southern Cross?

― Pleasant Plains (Pleasant Plains), Thursday, 20 November 2003 20:11 (twenty-one years ago) link

twenty-one years pass...

if you live at the equator you get almost 12 hours of day every day all year. that must be strange if you are used to northern chillin

― Life Day 2024 (Latham Green), Wednesday, 29 January 2025 15:40 (two days ago) link

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.