Coriolis Effect: IDTIMWYTIM

Does your toilet water drain differently than in the other hemisphere? Is it because of the Coriolis effect? Hank has some things to clarify about these questions, and more in this edition of I Don't Think It Means What You Think It Means.

--
Looking for SciShow elsewhere on the internet?

Sources

[BunnieGreen]

Does anyone else feel like the equator in this is way too low?

[WoytazThePilot]

As far as I know, on the Northern Hemisphere winds rotate counter-clockwise, not clockwise as stated in the video (just look up some satellite images of cyclons). Yes, the Coriolis Force will deflect air traveling on the northern hemisphere to the right, however that means that if you stand in such a way that wind is blowing on your back, the area of low pressure will be on your left hand (since the traveling air will be deflected to the right). Because wind will blow from the area of high pressure to the area of low pressure, it will spin counter clockwise (to the left) on the Northern Hemisphere and clockwise (to the right) on the Southern Hemisphere.

[AndrewGatt]

Two mistakes in this video.  The "circumference" of the Earth at the Equator is 40, 076 km, not the diameter.
Second, storms in the Northern Hemisphere rotate counter-clockwise, not clockwise.  That means that low pressure systems that produce hurricanes or cyclones in the Northern Hemisphere rotate counter-clockwise.

[alexanderl]

1:50 Hank says the coriolis effect does affect "bigger, slower moving fluids." The experiment Veritasium and Smarter Every Day conducted proved the same thing

[vaniadesmonda]

Veritasium & SmarterEveryday brought me here

[Jordan-zkwd]

Dude, I'm not real finicky usually, but your equator is killing me, it's so not middle. Anyone else just hurting deep down when they see this?

[LReBe]

I know how it made it into common understanding: THE SIMPSONS STARTED IT, with bart and lisa having a toothpaste race in their sink.

[xXSabzyKababzyXx]

NO JOKE I NEEDED TO KNOW WHAT THIS WAS THE OTHER DAY. YOUR TIMING IS FREAKING PERFECT OH

[SineCalvin]

Scishow! Hey! There is a large misunderstanding of aviation and parachute in the media (weird, right?) and I think it would be cool to do a show on BASE jumping, 'what if the parachute doesn't come out'? which pretty much ever happens, it's more complicated than that. Or 'what if the engine stops?' no, it does't just fall out of the sky, etc. I have a degree in aero, and I am a professional parachutist. If you are interested, I would love to help! PS- I love your show (space, etc) and thank you for being awesome. Communicating science is one of the more important things ever. -Calvin. 

[TroutOfOrder]

you know what I love about your channel: you explain so many things that Sheldon says from the Big Bang Theory, and you make it easily understandable.

[MrSaeedAta]

When I visited the equator with my family we did a little experiment. We took a bucket of water with a hole in the bottom and watched the drainage (using a matchstick to make it easier to observe) we walked about 10 paces north and it spun one way. Then we stopped the motion waked 20 paces south and let it flow again, the matchstick spun in the other direction. So I think that the effect can apply to small scale items.

[rjch]

Wow - talk about timely.

I'm an Australian who just happens to have flown over to the US over the weekend and it was literally yesterday that I had exactly the same thought you opened your video with.

Now if I just knew why the designs of toilet bowls differed so much from the US to Australia, that would be one less irritating, trivial detail for my brain to lock on to. :)

[katherineswift]

At 52 seconds. Could you not have used any other map projection. The Mercator projection is super unhelpful for globes, or their likenesses. Check out that equator you drew; definitely not in the middle of the circle...

[glurpbot]

I love you, I love you, I love you! The Earth Science regents are in 5 days and I'm panicking because I was an idiot and left months of studying to the last minute. And now I have to spend 10 months of lessons into my head in just 5 days. *THANK YOU!!!*

[newmanhiding]

2:16

This picture seems to imply that hurricanes rotate clockwise in the northern hemisphere, but isn’t it the opposite?

[AdilAlsuhaim]

I saw videos of experiments from countries on the equator demonstrating that water don't rotate when drained exactly on the equator with smaller basins, clockwise if the basin is moved slightly to the north, and counter-clockwise when drained slightly south of the equator.

[nobodyspecial]

I remember a long while back on the Simpsons, they went to Australia over something Bart did and that's where that myth started for me. Thanks for clearing this up.

[BrenBawks]

Yay! I hope these keep coming. I missed this series!

[NativeExplorer]

What about the “museums” on the equator when you go 10m north the water drain one way and you go 10 south it drains the other way?

[flixmanager]

Just for fun: if the Coriolis effect was strong enough to affect toilets wouldn't it cause mini whirlpools in your bloodstream? Or make your pee veer off to one side? :)