Brodhead Pietenpol Association

Original Posted By: "Michael D Cuy"
I once asked my Earth Science/Physics teacher in high school thisquestion... he was unable to answer it. I felt pretty macho at the timebeing able to stump the teacher in front of the class."if our drain water swirls clockwise in the northern hemisphere and it goesccw in southern hemisphere...... what happens at the equator? does it justgo straight down???"I still haven't got a real answer on that.... 13 yrs later.DJ----- Original Message -----

Original Posted By: "John Ford"

Original Posted By: "DJ Vegh"
Ask any sailor who has "Crossed the Line". It swirls the same way it did inthe northern hemisphere. In fact we went all the way to Rio and none of thedrains I looked at EVER changed directions. From what a physics major onboard said there are so many forces acting on the water that are so muchmore powerful than choriolis (SP?) he would have been shocked to see onechange direction. Didn't explain why the majority started out one direction(not all, but most) but I would imagine in a brand new clean drain choriolisis a bigger % of the total force in effect. Once crud starts accumulatingin the pipe with a swirl pattern established there isn't enough "push" fromthe Earth rotation to overcome it.Hank J----- Original Message -----