Coriolis Effect Which way do toilets flush in the Southern & Northern hemisphere
0hat is the Coriolis Effect?
This is made for parents and teachers
What is the Coriolis Effect? - (Coriolis Force explained)
Coriolis Effect - Which way do toilets flush in the Southern & Northern hemisphere
By now, everyone’s heard that the water that goes down the toilets spins counterclockwise in the northern hemisphere and clockwise in the southern hemisphere because of The Coriolis Effect.
The idea that the Coriolis effect makes water swirl one way down the toilet in the Southern Hemisphere and the other way in the Northern Hemisphere is actually a myth. As we can see here in these videos.
Toilets usually go in the direction on the water jets for that toilet and like here you can barely see which direction it is going. It also is too small of scale to really show.
Weather forecasters use the Coriolis effect as part of their calculations to work out how air moves from areas of high pressure to low pressure.
"The air wants to move in a straight line from high to low, but thanks to the Coriolis effect the air is deflected to the right in the Northern Hemisphere and moves into the low pressure zone counter-clockwise," and left in the Southern Hemisphere going into the low pressure area in a clockwise direction.
This high pressure tries to rush into the middle, because of the Coriolis effect the rushing air is deflected off course by the low pressure in the middle. In the Northern Hemisphere this gets pulled slightly to the right. The air keeps trying to get to the middle and continues to spin in a counter clock wise (right) motion. In the Southern Hemisphere the air is pulled to the left, making it spin clock wise.
The Coriolis effect only really works over large distances, its harder to see in a small scale like a sink or tubs. But we were able to make it work in a sink and tub thanks to angular momentum.