Everyone that responded was at least partially correct as i found after i
went to this neat site...just put coriolis in "search" and Voila
!.................................. "Question: Does my bathtub drain
differently depending on whether I live in the northern or southern
hemisphere? Answer: No. There is a real effect, but it is far too small to be
relevant when you pull the plug in your bathtub. Because the earth rotates, a
fluid that flows along the earth's surface feels a "Coriolis" acceleration
perpendicular to its velocity. In the northern hemisphere low pressure storm
systems spin counterclockwise. In the southern hemisphere, they spin
clockwise because the direction of the Coriolis acceleration is reversed.
This effect leads to the speculation that the bathtub vortex that you see
when you pull the plug from the drain spins one way in the north and the
other way in the south. But this acceleration is VERY weak for bathtub-scale
fluid motions. The order of magnitude of the Coriolis acceleration can be
estimated from size of the "Rossby number" (see below). The effect of the
Coriolis acceleration on your bathtub vortex is SMALL. To detect its effect
on your bathtub, you would have to get out and wait until the motion in the
water is far less than one rotation per day. This would require removing
thermal currents, vibration, and any other sources of noise. Under such
conditions, never occurring in the typical home, you WOULD see an effect. To
see what trouble it takes to actually see the effect, see the reference
below. Experiments have been done in both the northern and southern
hemispheres to verify that under carefully controlled conditions, bathtubs
drain in opposite directions due to the Coriolis acceleration from the
Earth's rotation".............still don't know how those "up-flush"
toilets....never mind..Bob, in awe of all you, Wanner in NY
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