Science fascinates me. The old Denorex commercials where the guy has two different shampoos applied to each side of his head had me sold. I mean, if it’s tingling, it’s working, right?
Anyway, people don’t do enough of their own science these days. We rely on fantastic tools like Google and Wikipedia to answer all of our questions about life. For instance, when I wanted to know if you can really break glass with your voice, I did a quick search online instead of just buying some glass and giving it a go. Well, I decided not to check with Google first on this next one.
I wanted to know, does water actually drain in opposite directions on the Northern and Southern Hemispheres? Since I visited Sydney last month, I thought I’d test the theory. I used ground pepper in the water so you could clearly see the drainage direction. Here’s my result.
As it turns out, people have believed this myth because of something called the Coriolis Effect. It’s what makes hurricanes spin in opposite directions north and south of the equator. However, it isn’t strong enough to effect the water in your sink at home. Different things can impact how the water drains. If you want to learn a little more, check here. Or just Google it.
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September 11th, 2008 at 11:49 am
I did this same experiment… except standing ON the equator. We cut the bottom off a two liter bottle and flipped it upside down for our drain, as there were no sinks handy right there on the equator.
Needless to say… the water didn’t go straight through without any spin at all. It spun which ever way you poured the water in.