Sat Feb 23 19:52:26 2002
From: Stan Rozycki 

Coriolis.

When one drains the water from the bathtub, it spins
counter clock wise on the northern hemisphere and
clockwise on the southern. The scientists blame that
on Coriolis forces. I always had problems to believe
in that. I did not have problems believing that the
forces influence ocean currents, winds, tornadoes,
rivers and other cases when media is moved across
large distances. But how it can have any measurable
effect on distances equal to the size of the drain
hole in the bathtub? I could not believe that - till I
saw it on my own eyes. The water did not spin on the
equator, but spinned in the proper directions when the
basin was moved from one or the other side of the
equator.

I was so impressed with the demonstration that I
decided make the experiment myself. Anyway not
everyday I am on the equator, especially in such place
where the line of equator is marked with accuracy of
0,5 mm! My goal was to find out the sensitivity of
this thing, how far from the equator I have to move
the basin to make the water to spin. So I bought in a
tailor supply store "cinta metrical", a measuring
tape, prepared test cases and early in the morning, to
avoid to many tourists, I went to the museum, where I
spent several hours.

The result I got are unbelievable! I found out that
the minimum distance where water spins consistently is
22 cm, for both hemispheres.

MINIMUM DISPLACEMENT 22 cm !!!!!

EXPERIMENT:
There was a basin on a stand with drain opening of
diameter 45 mm, with a stopper. The water was drained
to the bucket. Then after covering the opening with
the stopper, I poured the water back to the basin and
waited till it calms. There was 12 liters of water.

I made 20 emptying for each of the following
distances:

RESULTS:

0 cm - never spinned, however 2 times was kind of
oscillating in both directions.

15 cm - 3 times spinned, however once in "wrong"
direction, caused probably by something else.

20 cm - 17 spinning, good direction, 3 straight

22 cm - all spinning, good direction.

25 cm - all spinning, good direction.

==========================================

It took 22 sec to drain the basin. Due to the inertia,
the water began to spin with a delay, which depended
of the strengths of the Coriolis forces, which
depended of the distance of the displacement from the
equator.

The delays were:
18 cm - 18 - 20 sec
20 cm - 15 - 18 sec
22 cm - 10 - 16 sec
25 cm - 05 - 08 sec
So perhaps it would be 100% for 18 and 20 if I had
longer drain time than 22 sec ( more water)

I repeated the measurements for the northern
hemisphere, however with much less cases.

I could make the water to spin on the equator, if I
initiated the spinning manually.

So I got repeatable results. If one of you is going to
Quito and wants to repeat the test, please go to Inti
Ņan Museo. It is a private museum just behind the
government obelisk. Inti Ņan means in Quechua road of
the sun

I had to stop the experiment several times, because
they had the tourists and wanted to make the
demonstration. One of the tourists was a retired civil
engineer from North Carolina. He was as shocked with
this as I, especially when I showed him mu results. We
both agreed that we don`t understand how it works.
=======================================

Another thing, which I don`t understand, is the egg.
It is possible to stand an egg on its one end, when it
is exactly on the equator. It is impossible otherwise.
I don`t know why, but I saw the eggs being put on
their ends end remaining in this position.
=========================================

There is also 2 face sundial. The dials are vertical.
Horizontal dials cannot be built between tropics. This
face, which is on spring - summer side shows the time.
the other is in shadow.
==============================================

There is also a church built on the equator, which
runs through the alley. Two rows of benches are on
different hemispheres. The church is used wor
weddings.



=====
Stan Rozycki
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