Conservation of angular momentum in coriolis generated tornado funnel

1. Oct 10, 2003

carl fischbach

After careful observation of tornado funnels and
coriolis generated water funnels of draining sinks
the increasing angular velocities of the water
with reduced radii is greater than allowed for
by the law of conservation of angular momentum.
Could someone shed some light on this situation
for me.

2. Oct 10, 2003

Jonathan

I don't know, I've never heard of this, I think it is very interesting. If I remember correctly, L=mvr. And if we assume m is constant, and (the absolute value of) v is increasing due to gravity, then the derivative of the radius as a function of time should be a negative constant (indicating a constant decrease in radius). When I visualize this, it seems to correlate nicely with the picture of a vortex in my head. Please post everything you know, though actual data may be a bit much to type up. Regardless of what anyone says in this thread, I'm going to look into this, I find vorticies fascinating.

Last edited: Oct 10, 2003
3. Oct 10, 2003

Guybrush Threepwood

4. Oct 10, 2003

Jonathan

Good point, I misunderstood what he was saying. I thought he had an experimental setup of a tub (w/ hole) mounted to the rim of a lazy susan type of thing, that way he could reliably get vorticies of known angular velocity, size, etc., given the angular velocity of the lazy susan thing, radius of said thing, etc..