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vin300
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I have observed that when water goes down the sink, a vortex forms. Why doesn't water just down, not in a vortex?
trollcast said:http://science.howstuffworks.com/nature/climate-weather/storms/tornado1.htm
' Once the spiral has started in one direction, it tends to influence all the other particles as they arrive. A very strong spiraling tendency is created. Eventually, there's enough spiraling energy to create a vortex."
juniorcarty said:If this was the case, the spiral would either take a clockwise or anti-clockwise rotation in a 50/50 split expectation. However, the spiral ALWAYS adopts a clockwise rotation in the northern hemisphere and alternatively, an anti-clockwise rotation in the southern. Illustrating that it is the rotation of the Earth which is the major influence on why the water adopts a spiral down the plug hole in the first place.
etudiant said:Is there a reference to that assertion?
I'd love to know who did the experiments and whether they were also done near the equator, there the effect should then be randomly clockwise or counterclockwise.
Realize that this reference contradicts what you said earlier:juniorcarty said:This article in Scientific American explains the phenomenon
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=can-somebody-finally-sett
It was also demonstrated as true by Ascher Shapiro, a researcher at MIT in 1962.
juniorcarty said:If this was the case, the spiral would either take a clockwise or anti-clockwise rotation in a 50/50 split expectation. However, the spiral ALWAYS adopts a clockwise rotation in the northern hemisphere and alternatively, an anti-clockwise rotation in the southern. Illustrating that it is the rotation of the Earth which is the major influence on why the water adopts a spiral down the plug hole in the first place.
juniorcarty said:If this was the case, the spiral would either take a clockwise or anti-clockwise rotation in a 50/50 split expectation. However, the spiral ALWAYS adopts a clockwise rotation in the northern hemisphere and alternatively, an anti-clockwise rotation in the southern. Illustrating that it is the rotation of the Earth which is the major influence on why the water adopts a spiral down the plug hole in the first place.
That's what I always think too. On the other hand these pools they used in the videos above are about the size of an common Foucault pendulum, which precesses noticeably during the time it takes to empty such a pool.Nugatory said:This is not a surprising result, as you can calculate the approximate magnitude of the Coriolis force on the opposite sides of a vortex a few centimeters across in water moving at a few centimeters per second, and it is nowhere near enough to influence the movement of the water.
The spinning motion of water in a sink is caused by a phenomenon known as the Coriolis effect. This occurs due to the Earth's rotation, which creates a force that affects the direction of moving objects, including water in a sink.
Yes, the direction of the spinning water can be influenced by the location of the sink. In the northern hemisphere, water will spin counterclockwise, while in the southern hemisphere it will spin clockwise. This is due to the Coriolis effect being stronger near the poles and weaker near the equator.
The shape of the sink itself does not have a significant impact on the direction of the spinning water. However, factors such as the shape and position of the drain can play a role in the direction of the vortex.
The speed at which the water spins in a sink is influenced by various factors, such as the volume and temperature of the water, the depth of the sink, and the position and size of the drain. These factors can affect the strength and direction of the Coriolis effect, resulting in different speeds of the spinning water.
Yes, the Coriolis effect can affect other bodies of water, but only on a large scale. Small bodies of water, such as bathtubs or even rivers, are too small for the Coriolis effect to have a noticeable impact on the direction of the water flow.