How does fluid go down the drain where you live?

[fuscia]

what does it do on the equator?

[woedend]

evaporates before it can be drained.

[Engnome]

Doesnt matter, how the water is flushed (enters) my toilet matters alot more than the corolis effect. However Ive read about someone who poured it in really big tanks and then he waited for a couple of days just to make sure the water wasnt moving. When he poured it out he could actually see the corolis effect.

[Kimm]

The term you may be searching for is "Coriolis effect" (and it is a myth).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coriolis_effect
http://www.snopes.com/science/coriolis.htm

The Coriolis effect is not a myth!

However, the flow of the water is strongly dependent on whether it was moving or not before you start flushing it.

We resently experimented with this and came to the conclution that (in the northern hemisphere) it rotates clockwise about 60% of the time, I'd also like to point out that this was tested using sinks and not toilets.

If you have a large container of water (still water), with a small hole at the bottom, the water will rotate clockwise in the northern hemsiphere

Edit:
Perhaps I should point out that these tests where conducted in the north of Sweden.

[Engnome]

Exactly what I was trying to say, you were alot clearer though. Have you read http://www.faktoider.nu/ its great for checking those urban myths. Its mostly Swedish stuff though (some english). The rest of ya go watch mythbusters!

[Biltong (Dee)]

Compared to the rotations that one usually sees (tires on a travelling automobile, a compact disc playing music, or a draining sink), the rotation of the Earth is very small: only one rotation per day. The water in a sink might make a rotation in a few seconds and so have a rotation rate ten thousand times higher than that of the Earth. It should not be surprising, therefore, to learn that the Coriolis force is orders of magnitude smaller than any of the forces involved in these everyday spinning things. The Coriolis force is so small, that it plays no role in determining the direction of rotation of a draining sink anymore than it does the direction of a spinning CD.
The full article is here: http://www.ems.psu.edu/~fraser/Bad/BadCoriolis.html

[Kimm]

Biltong, ofcourse it does effect it!

Imagine you having a huge container of completely still water, then unplugg a small hole in the bottom... Something has to effect the direction the water runns, and what force is there to decide upon that? The Coriolis Effect!

And saying that the earth spinns slowly is simply not true.
The earth has about 40000 km around it, and it covers that in 1 day.

1 day = 24 hours
40000 / 24 ~ 1667 km/h
or for people that like it in m/s: ~ 493 meters/secund

Mind you, this is only at the equator.

[Biltong (Dee)]

Woah, beware of scientific Swedes!!

Every time I have ever looked (which is not that often, believe me) my bathwater drains clockwise - and I put that down to me living in South Africa.

BUT, I knew that this article existed, and according to THEM the coriolis effect is negligible.

If you believe they are wrong, so be it.

- to have and voice ones opinion is what democracy is all about...

[halfvolle melk]

My apologies. In the future I will refrain from atempting humor when it's way past my bedtime. Ofcourse corriolis will be the last effect you'll notice. But when I ever venture down south I'll try it anyway.

After further review.... Water in my drain goes

| 
v
|
v
|
v
|
v

lol, thanks for submitting your emperical findings!

[ThirdWorld]

After some testing I concluded that here the flow is like this:

 ->
^  |
|  v
 <-

52°21′N 04°52′E

Dude, you should be very bored today...