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is it true that a toilet flush spins one direction in the northern hemisphere & different in southern?
10 Answers
- auntb93againLv 71 decade ago
I think the direction of the swirl in the toilet is far more determined by the design of the toilet than the rotation of the earth.
However, there has been a persistent story that a bathtub drain has this hemispheric difference, responding to the Coriolis effect. Ed Zotti in "Know It All!" points out that the direction of the draining of a tub is more the result of the way it was filled. The water continues to swirl in the same direction once it starts up in response to the angle of the stream when it is filled.
However, if you let the tub sit for a long time, to where the water really gets very still, then the Coriolis effect does in fact take over. How often do you let water stand in the bathtub for some 24 hours and grow really still before you pull the plug?
Source(s): "Know It All!" by Ed Zotti, 1993, Ballentine Books - Anonymous1 decade ago
No. The spin of drainng water is influenced far more by the geometry of the bowl than by anything relating to earth's rotation. In toilets, particularly, the openings under the rim which admit water into the bowl are slanted to provide a spin.
- 1 decade ago
No, the water in the toilet spins the same way in both hemispheres. I have been to Australia and witnessed it first hand. Its the way the toilet is designed to flush.
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- Andy SLv 61 decade ago
You're gonna hear a lot of junk about the Coriolis effect. Don't listen! A toliet is much too tiny to exhibit Coriolan tendencies. The twirl in your toilet is determined by jets of water filling the bowl, and the shape of the drain. Anyone who tells you otherwise simply does not understand the nuisances of the scales involved!
- Anonymous1 decade ago
no. it is based upon the angle at which the water enters the bowl, not the earths spin.
- BillyLv 41 decade ago
yes, hurricanes, which are known as cyclones/typhoons also spin in opposite directions.