Question:

If toilets flush clockwise on one side of the equator and counter clockwise on the other side of the equater?

by Guest61561 | earlier

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What direction do they flush if they are right on the equator?

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ok simply it changes from day to day. chances are that it wouldnt be directly on the equator though
Report (0) (0) | earlier
Check out Bad AStronomy's comment on the corioilis effect

http://www.badastronomy.com/mad/1996/cor...

Toilets flush the way they do because of the design of the toilet and not because of the coriolis effect!

There is a great story in the BadAstronomy book about a guy in Kenya scamming tourists by trying to show the difference in effect on each side of the equator - it's hilarious.
Report (0) (0) | earlier
Listen up!!! Water and every other liquid, takes the shape of its container. It also takes the path of least resistance. OR in the direction that it is ported in...

The holes in toilet are pored to move the water in one direction.. CW or CCW
Report (0) (0) | earlier
You can't be RIGHT ON the equator. You will either be slightly north or slightly south.
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A toilet that is located right on the equator would be so thin as not to be able to flush at all. However the parts of a real toilet having halves on either side of the equator would flush in opposing directions. (Do they have toilets on the equator at all?).

The question is actually about the Corrolis effect of a fluid passing through a sink (hole) where the direction of the spin is due to that of the component of rotation of the earth.
Report (0) (0) | earlier
That is a very big IF.

Generally the water drains DOWN.

This story has been around a long time, but no experiment has ever proved it, and there is no scientific theory as to why it would or should happen.

So on the equator,or north, or south, the water will swirl at random, depending on how it got started by the plug being pulled. In a theoretical plugless situation (say water down a roof drainpipe) the direction of swirl will depend on the shape of the pipe, the shape of the entrance to it, and which way the water was coming from.
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