Science question?

Question

I wasn't sure where to categorise this question as it seems to span a large number of topics.

WHY IN NATURE DO THINGS TEND TO SPIN?
Why is it that a toilet will flush counter-clockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and Clockwise in the Southern? Same deal with tornatoes, huricanes, and general weather patterns.
After the Big Bang why did matter group together and decide to form spinning galaxies? I've heard the moon was formed by a large asteroid hitting the earth, that seperated into a large chunk. Why did it start to revolve (or spin) around the earth instead of continuing to fly off into space? Are all these effects related to the same force? Is there a term in general science for this phenomenon? Or is this still a mystery? Thanks. I've allways wondered about this.

Answer 1

Toilets flush the way they do because there are little jets set at a slight angle to cause them to spin as they flush. Hurricanes spin counter-clockwise in the northern hemisphere and clockwise in the southern hemisphere because the the "coriolus effect" with is the effect on a large mass of the earth spinning on it's axis and rotating around the sun. The rising air and clouds are actually stationary, but the earth is spinning and rotating around the sun so it creates an effect of counterclockwise motion (or clockwise motion in the southern hemisphere). You don't see this in a toilet or sink because they aren't PERFECTLY ROUND with the water currents settled to silence by a week of no water flow and with tiny, pinprick sized holes for water to drip out of. The drains are too big and the container is too un-spherical to use toilets or sinks to test the coriolus effect.

The moon is in orbit because a large object crashed into the earth 4.5 billion years ago, sheered off a huge bunch of earth and then crashed back to earth again, spinning off a large string of matter which formed the moon, which has slowly been spiraling out away from the earth (it's original orbit was only 14,000 miles from the earth! It was 10 times larger in the sky than it isnow!). The moon is still spinning away from the earth a couple of inches a year.

With a slightly different trajectory of the large mass, the earth would have become bigger having included the mass. With another slighly different trajectory, the moon would have spun away from us.

We know the moon and the earth are of joint origin becuase the proportion of isotopes for every element is the same. That represents an impossible coincidence -- they must have at one time been one body. This is the same test (relative isotopes) that confirm certain rocks as meteorites and confirm which are from which planet.

Protons spin. Electrons spin. Planets spin. Galaxies whirl. This is a mathematical property, which we could call "identity of scale."

Answer 2

To explain tornadoes, huricanes and other storm systems take a look at the references to the coriolis effect that other people have given you. It is not true that your toilets flush in opposite directions in the north and south, the coriolis effect does not have any effect over such small distances.

As to why matter has tended to clump together and everything goes round in circles. This is not quite as difficult to imagine as you may think.

Think of a mixture of gasses that is very hot and has just been released. All of the atoms and molecules are wizzing around in a random fashion. There will obviously be a number of collisions and lots of near misses.

Remember that things are moving fast and that everything attrats everything else (gravity). In a near miss, two objects that are about to pass each other will be attracted towards each other. There will obviously be a change in velocity (speed and direction) for each object. It is quite possible that the two objects will start to orbit each other. Here we have the start of rotating systems.

When other objects are drawn into our orbitting system, if the orbit in the same direction the chance of a collision is small, if they orbit in different directions the chance of a collison is higher. This will, after a while, result in one direction of rotation becoming dominant. Here we have the start of organisation coming out of randomness. Follow on and you can see that there is an opportunity for organisation on a grander and grander scale.

This is way over simplified, but will give you an idea of what can happen and how we might en up where we are.

Answer 3

There's really several different question in this one.
Toilet flushes, hurricanes and tornadoes spins clockwise or counterclockwise due to the Coriolis effect (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coriolis_force).
Matter tend to group together due to the gravitational force. Giving the preservation of the mechanical momentum, any eccentricity of such a system would lead to the rotation.
If moon was indeed a separated chunk of Earth, it would not go fly to space because there was a gap between orbital and escape velocities. Any body having speed more than 9.81 km/s and less than 11 km/s would stay in Earth orbit, differing only in orbit shape.
So... There's really a bunch of different phenomenons.

Answer 4

I wondered this question once myself on a canoeing trip in FL watching the vortexes shed off the oar as I pulled it through the water. Yes, I am a nerd, but I am a intellectually satisfied, well-paid nerd.

For the general answer, spinning is basically an efficient means of dealing with energy. Study the Navier-Stokes equations.

Answer 5

I think that you are talking about the Coriolis effect. This describes it pretty well:

Answer 6

Take a class or read a book on thermodynamics. It should tell you what you need to know.