Star this: Why do shower curtains "float" inward while you shower?

Question

This has been bothering me for quite awhile.

best answer will be picked

Thanks.

Please star the question

Answer 1

Usually, a shower is with hot water.

Hot water heats the air in the shower.

Hot air rises in the shower - (on its way to fog up your mirror).

Cooler air must come into the shower, and since the shower curtain is in the way of the cooler air, the air pushes it in - and the cooler air ends up coming in UNDER the shower curtain because the curtain is blocking the air.

(Its the chimney effect.)

to cure this, install 2 shower curtains - and put one inside and the other outside the tub.

Answer 2

It's because the air inside the shower is warmer, therefore less dense and more boyant and it tends to rise.  This is enough to create a small low pressure area inside your shower which pulls the curtain in.  

Answer 3

Mine don't. Maybe it's because you don't have those suction buttons or magnets on your shower curtain.

It's called "blow-in," is that phenomenon, and it's caused by the vortex created by the shower spray. The better the water pressure, the worse the blow-in.

There are a couple of theories on why this happens:

Buoyancy theory - observes that warm air (from the hot shower) rises out over the shower curtain as cooler air (near the floor) pushes in under the curtain to replace the rising air.

Bernoulli effect theory - states that an increase in velocity results in a decrease in pressure. This theory presumes that the water flowing out of a shower head causes the air through which the water moves to start flowing in the same direction as the water. This movement would be parallel to the plane of the shower curtain. If air is moving across the inside surface of the shower curtain, Bernoulli's principle says the air pressure there will drop. This would result in a pressure differential between the inside and outside, causing the curtain to move inward. It would be strongest when the gap between the bather and the curtain is smallest - resulting in the curtain trying to wrap you when you get close to it.

Horizontal vortex theory - One computer model of the typical bathroom found that the spray from the shower-head drives a horizontal vortex. This vortex has a low-pressure zone in the centre, which sucks the curtain.

Condensation - A hot shower will produce steam that condenses on the shower side of the curtain; lowering the pressure there. In a steady state the steam will be replaced by new steam delivered by the shower but in reality the water temperature will fluctuate and lead to times when the net steam production is negative.