Why does water spiral down the drain???...tom science?

Answer 1

Same reason why planets orbit around the sun instead of falling straight into it... because the water had a little bit of initial motion to begin with that wasn't in the direction of the drain.

And don't listen to these people below regarding the Coriolis force. I can assure you that the effect does not apply to ridiculously small things such as bathtub drains.

Answer 2

What you see is called the Coriolis "force". However what is really happening is that the earth is turning underneath the water so it appears to spiral. Coriolis force is what we physicists call a fictitious force.

Let me give you an example. If you shoot a missle toward Iran from the US aiming straight at Iran, you would see the missle veer off course and not hit its target. Why, because while the missle was aloft, the earth turned from underneath it, but from your frame of reference you saw a fictitious force push the missle off course.

You have to correct such trajectories to be immune from the effect. However the correction you make in the northern hemisphere will be off 2X in the western hemisphere and vice versa. Look up the 1st battle of the Faukland islands.

Answer 3

I "think" if the hole of the drain was larger than the container holding the water it would go straight but that would be a terrible way for plumbing to work ..so it ooes from large volume to small orafice thus gravity takes hold and since the earth spins so must the water ( or we all would be sucked in by Black Holes). I think , but heck ask Mr. Sience of the 60's

Answer 4

the Coriolis Effect is not strong enough to make the water go round.
this happens because the water coming down is not straight, it's of on an angle. this makes the water go round before it goes down the drain.

Answer 5

Corilous Effect