Bad Astronomy: Misconceptions and Misuses Revealed, from ...

FLUSHED WITH EMBARRASSMENT 25
Equator
low
pressure
system
low
pressure
system
The Coriolis effect is only significant over large
distances. A hurricane is born when a low-pressure
patch of air draws air in from higher and lower
latitudes. Because of the Coriolis effect, in the
northern hemisphere the air from the south moves
east, and the air from the north moves west,
causing a clockwise rotation.
which means that any random eddy or swirl in the water will completely
swamp it. If the water always drains one way from your
bathtub, then it has far more to do with the detailed shape of your
drain than from the rotating Earth.
Obsessive would-be physicists have actually performed experiments
using household sinks. They have found that the sink needs
to sit still for over three weeks so that random currents die off
enough to see an appreciable Coriolis effect. Not only that, they
have to let the sink drain one drip at a time to give the effect time
to take hold. You’re not likely to see this after hand-washing your
delicates in the sink.
The same is true for your toilet. This one always makes me
laugh: toilets are designed to spin the water. It helps remove, well,
stubborn things that don’t want to be removed so easily. The water
is injected into the bowl through tubes that are angled, so it always
flushes the same way! If I were to rip my toilet out of the wall and