The vortex is a stable formation and wiki shows evidence that indeed in the absence of any bias deliberately introduced
- a vortex will nearly always form
- it will be nearly always be anti clockwise (Northern hemisphere) due to the (minute) Coriolis force.
Oh I think Brian knew it was a wind up, but I'm not so sure about CB.
Tim
What about the angular momentum of the water at the moment the plug is pulled. You sure that's gonna be low enough not to interfere?
Perhaps TNP has *big* basins/baths, and allows the water to stand for 24 hours or so - much as those who tested this in the 60s did[1]?
Water in sinks/basins here goes clockwise. But since I fitted them the water's deffo not left to its own devices :(
[1]
It's because the ridge acts as a vortex generator, but you get a small controlled continuous one. Without you can get the chimney moving to the side one way, which tends to increase the attachment of the airflow on that side, so you get lift (in this case laterally) so the chimney keeps moving. Until finally the force is too big for the aerodynamics to overcome, it stops moving sideways, the lift collapses, the force goes and then the chimney goes back to the middle. On the way of course the process reverses, and you get lift going the other way - hence the oscillation.
Vertical ridges would do just as well - except they have to be on the side as the wind sees it. So much easier to put a spiral.
Andy
There is a bit of a difference between science and fiction. Please explain which latitudes this only works on:
In article , Harry Bloomfield scribeth thus
Found this totally by accident!..
Amusing lampposts;!..
?
Are you on drugs?
Tim
Tim
There's a scale difference.
Water trundling 10cm across a basin at 5cm/sec is affected a lot less than air trundling 100km across the planet at 50m/second.
Andy
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