We all know that a toilet flushed north of the Equator will drain in a clockwise direction, and a toilet flushed south of the Equator will drain in a counter-clockwise direction. (Or is it counter-clockwise in the North, and clockwise in the south...? I forget)
And some of us are smart enough to know that the reason behind this phenomenon is due to something called the Coriolis effect or Coriolis Force. It has something to do with the spinning of the earth, and the fact that items near the equator are moving faster than the same items near the poles, and thereby it skews the air in relationship to the ground... oh, don't ask me to explain this stuff... it's science and science makes my brain hurt.
So we're all on board... let's just stick to the simple stuff... Toilet water goes one direction north of the equator, and the opposite direction south of the equator (something every sailor or marine knows and understands)... this has been documented a number of times in popular culture including Michal Palin's "Pole to Pole" series, all the way down to an episode of The Simpsons entitled "Bart vs. Australia" where Bart calls Australia to find out which way the water is draining, (the episode includes a humorous contraption devised by the American Consulate in Australia to force the water to drain "counter-clockwise" as it should... if they were back in the good-old U.S. of A).
Okay... so we're all up to speed, right.... ? Wrong.
The fact is that the Coriolis effect only affects large systems, like cyclones, tornadoes, weather systems and currents. What happens in our toilet bowls is so small and inconsequential (well, maybe in YOUR toilet bowl) , that it's not impacted in the least by the Coriolis effect. The water in your toilet drains based on which way the jets in your toilet face.
So... what else do we "all know"... that's turned out to be "incorrect"? Hmmm? Hmmmmm?
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