2009 TRIP: Hmmm... were we duped at the Equator?

(This is on the lighter side side of things...something to ponder)

Before we talk about water flow down the drain at the Equator, perhaps we might want to research a little (and dust off those old Physics books)......

Alright so I was going through my pictures today and remembered that I had taken video footage on my digital camera at the Equator. We all remember the dramatic demonstration of water spiraling clockwise down the drain north of the equatorial line, spiraling counterclockwise down the drain south of the equatorial line and not spiraling at all directly on the Equator. Now I remember hearing about this as a grade school student, but I have to admit that I never believed it. I thought it to be an urban legend or myth. I even lived in the southern hemisphere for a year, but never actually tested it out myself. Needless to say I was quite impressed by the demonstration. You can find the same demonstration from the same guy on YouTube from September 2007.

I decided to do some on line research on the Coriolis effect so I could explain the phenomenon to people who ask "why is that so". And especially because I rub shoulders with a lot of science-types who are just as skeptical as I was about this. My first stop was Wikipedia. I don't remember that much physics to understand all this! I then found some information on Snopes which linked me to a site called Bad Coriolis.

The general consensus from these sites is that we were duped! They accuse us of falling victim to a gullible Equatorial tourist trap. Basically (I will leave the details for you to read), although the Coriolis effect is a real phenomenon (hurricanes spin clockwise in the northern hemisphere and counterclockwise in the southern hemisphere), it is a tremendously weak force on a minute scale. It is only perceptible over a very large scale and over a long period of time (ie. cyclonic revolutions of a hurricane). It cannot not be perceived on a roadside demonstration. Water down a drain is subject to so many variables, minute imperfections in the shape of the funnel for example, that more then compensate for the weak Coriolis force. The idea of water swirling a certain direction as you flush your toilet is due to the direction of the jets that force water into the bowl. Basically whatever direction the water starts swirling, it will continue in that direction no matter where in time and space you are located.

So did that guy at the Equator fool us? If he did, and from the science it seems like a real possibility, how he did it is a mystery to me. I have watched these videos to try and figure it out, but there is nothing overt that I find.

What do you think?