Hello Kevin, Friday, April 9, 2004, 7:35:30 AM, you wrote:
KT> I have heard that toilets swirl in the opposite direction in the southern KT> hemisphere. Everything else seems to be the same. This is simply a myth. The Coriolis force caused by the Earth's rotation is far too weak to have any significant effect on the swirling of water in toilets and sinks. The effect might be measurable with sufficiently sensitive instruments under ideal circumstances, but it's normally masked by the effects of the shape of the toilet or sink and any initial motion in the water. The Earth will rotate only about one minute of arc in the time it takes to flush. You need *huge* amounts of moving air and water for it to take effect. Indeed cyclones rotate clockwise in the southern hemisphere, and counterclockwise in the northern. Attila
