Equatorial bath water - follow-up

Right, after my little experiment a week or so ago, someone referred me
to Wikipedia, which says that the "water rotating in bath according to
hemisphere" thing is a myth.

The next day, we (me and other hacks) were taken to see a lavatory
factory. No, I don't know why either, but they were very proud of it in
Cuenca.[1]

And there they made loos which, in addition to swooshing the water down
the back of the pan, also directed it round the inside of the rim, via
channels, to wash the entire surface of the bowl. The water exited via
angled pipes under the rim.

And - get this - they had Northern Hemisphere and Southern Hemisphere
models, with the pipes angled accordingly, for clockwise or
anti-clockwise flow. Honest.

And they swore that on the Equator, it didn't matter, because it would
go either way.

No, I still don't know whether this thing is a whole myth or not, but if
it is, then a khazi factory in Ecuador has wasted a helluva lot of money
on tooling.

[1] One of the most beautiful towns I have ever seen. All Spanish
colonial style, and now designated a world heritage site. As it deserves
to be. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuenca,_Ecuador [2]

[2] On the front of the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, pictured
on this page, is a statue of Jesus looking down contemplatively at a
plaque or tablet or something he's holding in both hands. Without
thinking, I said: "It looks as if he's playing a Game Boy." There were
two seconds of stunned silence from our minders and guides, and I
remembered this is a fiercely Catholic country, and I probably should
not have said that. And then they positively *howled* with laughter, and
one of them said she'd grown up with that cathedral and never, ever
noticed what I'd pointed out. And now she'd never be able to look at the
statue without thinking of it.

So If you're ever there, and the guide jokes that Jesus is playing a
Game Boy, you owe it to me ;-)

 

I k now I can't believe everything I see on TV, but the Sky One prog
Brianiac did it recently and showed it was not the hemisphere but the plug
design that made the diff.

I'd have asked them for technical evidence of the effect/reasons as I
suspect they were just pulling your plonker.

Think "glass hammer" and work from there.

 

It's not. We stayed at the Mount Kenya Safari club[1] [2]and in our
particularly large **** off suite we had two bathrooms, one at each end.
Through the middle, dividing the whole thing in two, ran the Equator. SWMBO
thought I'd completely lost the plot as I ran between the two bathrooms.
Water in the khasi may well not rotate, but it most certainley does in
basins and baths going clockwise north of the equator and anti-clockwise to
the south.

You get all the top assignments don't you!

[1] one of the advantages of SWMBO recruiting 5* hotel management worldwide.
[2] although a flight into the boondocks from anywhere they have the most
anal dress code ever - I had to borrow a jacket and tie to eat in an empty
restaurant

 

<VVBG>

I'd have done the same thing.

 

Jesus, a whole week and you're still pissed enough to be ranting? What
*were* you drinking?

 

Paraffin?

Ali

 

>, The Older Gentleman
() says...

<Snip>

There's a TV programme on at the moment called Equator, in which
a Palin wannabe travels right round the Equator.

A couple of weeks ago he came across someone who reminded me a
bit of you.

This guy had set up a little gate on the Equator, which you
could go through from North to South (or vice versa). For a fee.
And he could give you a certificate saying you'd done so. For a
fee.

He also had two sinks set up, one in each hemisphere, so you
could let the water out and see how it went down. Sadly, I
wasn't really paying attention, so I don't recall if it ran in
different directions or not.


Changing the subject slightly and <Paging Dr Reid>

Do CRT monitors and TVs need re-tuning depending on what
hemisphere they're in?

A few years ago I was working on Y2K compliance for A Major
Airline, and my job was to be on the case of the company that
provided check-in equipment. In most cases, the process of
ensuring Y2K compliance insisted of throwing out old PCs- which
in any case were long in the tooth- and replacing them with new
ones.

They told me that there was a delay in equipping airports in Oz
because the monitors needed to be recalibrated to cope with the
different magnetic field down there.

Windup, bullshit or true?


--
<8P Wizard
Suzuki GS550 "I like that. Nicely shite" - TOG
Mitsubishi Galant 1.8 GLS I
ANORAK#17b BOMB#19 BOTAFOT#138 BREast#5 COFF#24
COSOC#8 DFV#11 STG#1
Remove location from email address to reply

 

Sounds like bullshit, but it rings a bell about CRTs needing some
attention depending on local fields. Not the Earth's magnetic field.

 

Windup and bullshit.
As is the coriolis effect in sinks. Sorry, it's totally to do with
design of the sink. Coming from Down Under, we tend to hear this
little gem a hell of a lot.

For the guy that was in Kenya, do you really think the magnetic field
of the Earth is that precise and static enough to make a difference
between to sinks 20-30 feet apart? Come on . . . think of the
percentage difference in that small a distance.

Another one we like to throw around down here is that shafties can't
wheelstand because of the coriolis effect but they can countersteer
but it is the reverse in the Northern Hemisphere. Amazing how many
that one catches as well.

Cheers
Kev (Soon to be Northern Hemisphere Kev, which is why I'm lurking
here).

 

Sounds more like it would need degaussing after being on an aircraft
or having been moved around with a whole heap of other gear. I have a
degaussing wand here for that very reason. Get a CRT too close to a
set of speakers and it will magnetise the frame. Move the CRT and you
need to degauss it. Doubt you could ship a CRT from UK to Oz without
putting it through some sort of artificial situation which would cause
that.

If you could effectively teleport the CRT (without passing through a
generated magentic field) I think you will find the Earth's magnetic
field makes SFA difference. (And yeah, I've been working in the TV
industry since 1978, both tech and production).

Cheers
Kev

 

What do you say now, after you've read Kevin Gleeson's comments?

 

I claim responsibility for introducing the Coriolis Effect into the
'shaft drive bikes can't wheely' debate. Must have been.... oh, eight
or nine years ago.

And yes, it always works on someone.

 

Wizard () gurgled happily, sounding much like they
were saying :

CRT monitors certainly used to be spec'd as Northern or Southern hemisphere
- with that detail clear on the box label.

 

For the guy that was in Kenya, do you really think the magnetic field

I would agree with you if I hadn't actually seen it..

 

I've seen it, has he?

 

Yebbut, if you lob it out of a window, what way does it spin?

 

Doesn't matter, it'll still land on all four paws.

Ali

 

I'm not saying you didn't see it. But I really wonder what you did
see? Isn't there a lovely little world where they set that up for you?

I hate this sort of stuff and am the most cynical old bastard that is
around. I'm not trying to knock you or anything, but I do get very
tired of people playing games into stuff like this. Check Snopes out.
Check Wikipedia out. And still don't believe. You saw what you saw.
Which is more than I have seen (although I have crossed that equator
and haven't tested it that close).

Maybe I've been set up by all these scientists? I dunno. But the proof
really comes down to this. Check sinks where you live. Make sure they
are different designs. Watch how they swirl. Dunno about you, but down
here they can go both ways. It's pretty easy to do the experiment. You
don't have to cross the equator to do it.

I'm not trying to take the piss out of you, I just get sick of these
old tales coming up all the time.

Anyway. My Busa can both wheelstand and countersteer. The fucker just
can't get past a pub. Is that the reverse in northern hemisphere?

Cheers dudes. Beer in that reversed part of the planet shortly.
Kev

 

Depends which side it is buttered on.

 

Get a bucket, drill a circular hole in the bottom and put a cork in, fill
with water and let settle. Place something small and floaty in the water and
pull the plug - which way does it spin?

It's an age old problem, although I suspect our pubs are bit closer
together.

We'll introduce to some proper beer then ;-)