Uganda At The Equator - Water Experiment | Coriolis Effect 

13 countries in the world have the privilege to have the Equator line in their "backyard". Have you visited an any of them? Have you seen this demonstration live?

Seems hard to believe that only a few feet of difference from the 0 equator line would cause the Coriolis effect

He's right that the Coriolis effect is stronger with distance from the equator. At this distance it's basically zero. (For those interested, that's because small movements north or south from the equator doesn't change the distance from the earth's rotation axis.) Even at the poles it's a tiny effect on this scale. I admire the smooth hucksterism, though

The Coriolis Effect is very small at the equator, is gets greater toward the poles. This is absolutely showmanship.

Simple trick Both Sink drain pipes internally designed with clockwise threading & anticlockwise threading

That guy is more educated then the average American highschooler.

For those curious, you CAN actually see the coriolis effect on water, but you have to have a HUGE basin of water and lots of controls for things like the drain spout and currents in the water. People have done experiments to demonstrate it. But this ain't it.

I’m learning navigation. And coriolis force is a vital part of Meteorology (a subject of navigation), and this force is the reason for wind and current directions and formation of TRS. My college wasn’t able to made us understand this phenomenon, but you did this. Thank you 🙏

Science nerds in the comments are too proud to say thankyou to the man who is enlighten by the science and deserves a thumbs up! Its a legit experiment, would love to see if we slowly move it from zero to North, how does it changes and by what percentage.

I hope you learned their language for "We scammed some more tourists!" The Coriolis effect isn't strong enough to have any effect on such a small body of water. Even if they were huge bodies of water, they're all too close to the equator. If you look closely, he slightly span each flower in the direction he claimed the water was rotating, but there was no light reflection of the water doing the same thing. It's all done with slight of hand, just like street card tricks.

In order for the Coriolis effect to have significant influence on the flow of water you need huge scales, like oceans or hurricanes. In small scales we experience everyday like the one in the video the terms of friction caused by the shape of the bowl are the leading terms in the Navier Stokes equation. As scales grow, so does the effect of the Coriolis compared to the previous terms.

i have so much respect for someone that knows what they're talking about.....or at least sounds like it. great bloke there

Not only is the coriolis effect negligible at those distances, but he got the spin direction wrong. Its counter clockwise in the North and Clockwise in the south. Bonus: it only works for large systems such as hurricanes not your kitchen sink

That's a very slick piece of con-artistry. He is to be congratulated. Not everyone will be fooled, of course

its fascinating that the effect is observable so clearly despite only making a few steps

Love this guy's entrepreneurial spirit, even if he is filling tourist's heads with nonsense :)

He forgot to swap the containers to prove they spin in one direction only because of the hemisphere and not the shape of the container.

There is not enough time for the Coriolis effect to influence the direction of flow in the water. The shape of the bowl or the way the water is poured dominates the direction of flow, with the affect of Earth's rotation minimal, especially considering it is at the equator where the Coriolis effect is almost zero (it is maximized at the poles).

It shows the field shoots out the north and south pole and come in at the equator. Great experiment

Hahaha, they even managed to spin the water in the wrong directions xD

Nice demonstration, but you won't see a Coriolis effect in such a small scale. Look for cloud formations on satelite maps.

Great proof of how the coriolis effect drains your wallet effectively in the undesired direction 😂😂

ALWAYS WONDERED about this. Thanks

At this level the local geometry decide completely the behaviour of the water flow. Tell this guy that he needs at least the entire lake Victoria to do the trick.

The direction of rotation depends on the shape of the water outlet, just a small deviation is enough and the water is spinning, just like water creates a vortex in the drain of our bathtub.

This destroys the flat earth followers wet dreams

I had no idea. Learn something new every day

I’ve been to Uganda and this was very fascinating as a kid 😂

Just few metres and such difference? Imagine force in Canada for example. That flower would spin so fast that it would create giant black hole! 😂

I understand the true science but this dude so smooth I’m not even mad 😂

For those woundering he just waits till the waters starts doing the spiral for the two first and the last one he puts the flower as soon as the water starts going and by keeping it at the middle it stops air reaching the hole. You can also do this in your sink it you wanna try.

That is friggin amazing.

We visited the equator line right outside of Quito Ecuador and they had this same demonstration setup. They actually wanted u to give them money to show u this. A few locals told us not to pay for it bc it was a trick.

When I was a kid in 8th grade, I did an experiment to show this. But what happened surprised me. I did the experiment over 50 times. I was shooting for 100, but eventually gave up. They water went clockwise some time, and sometimes went counterclockwise. Whichever direction it went just became the way it would go. It would drain the entire tub going one way or the other and never change. I didn’t use a divider to stop the waters movement. Just poured it in and pulled the plug. So whichever the water’s inertia was, it was enough to make it go that way and stay that way. This was in Indiana, nearly to the north pole compared to Uganda. I considered the idea busted. There was more about the pouring of the water than the Coriolis effect.

The directions of rotation demonstrated in this video are NOT due to the Coriolis effect for (at least) 3 reasons: 1. The Coriolis effect is too small to have a noticeable influence this close to the equator. 2. The size of the bowls is too small for the Coriolis effect to have a noticeable influence. 3. If the Coriolis effect is really causing the direction of rotation in this situation, the rotation would be in the opposite directions than shown. (Low pressure systems rotate clockwise in the southern hemisphere, and counterclockwise in the northern hemisphere. The water funneling towards a central point in the bowls is analogous to a low pressure system).

How cool! Thank you!!

I'm going to give this guy a 10 out of 10 for duping these astonishingly stupid people.

This is also a wonderful example of how you can catch fish on dry land.

This is so awesome. Thanks for sharing :D

Thank u for posting such a amazing site to visit...

Nice video but the Corolios effect doesn't have any impact on the spinning of the flower (This is a small spatial scale)

Stabalising the water with a machette - i like it ....

People misunderstand this and think that water will only spiral in a specific direction depending on north or south, but this effect only happens when you allow the water to naturally start its own vortex.

That's really cool, dude

We need to see the drain's shape or angle of the hole, because if it's shaped like a corkscrew or angled, it'll cause the water to drain in a specific direction (counter/clockwise).

This is known as a great trick in the art of magic.

I know it's a setup but he is still demonstrating what happens. Neat little demo for anyone visiting the equator I guess.

I knew about the different directions, but I never imagined 50 feet would make a difference and that one on the equator, that is compleyely new to me.

Thank you so much for an intriguing and enlightening experience thank you for all you do it really made my day!

This is laughable🤣 You can actually see the embossed left twisting star around the drain on the first one, same with the second one twisting to the right and the middle on is smooth! 😆👍 Nice street trick!

Wow that is really interesting. Learn something new every day! Thank you Kalungi!

The guide seems like a super cool and smart guy.

I observed that after he poured water, the water in the pool in the southern hemisphere had turned counterclockwise, while the water in the pool in the northern hemisphere had turned clockwise. Notice that the small bubbles on the water surface reveal the rotation direction of the water. Although he put a baffle in the pool, it was not enough to eliminate the potential rotation. I also observed that the blocking time of the baffle in the southern or northern hemisphere is 4 seconds, while the blocking time of the baffle on the equator is 14 seconds. The performer used his words to cover up the time gap. This performance is only a way for local people to earn money. Therefore, tourists need not take it seriously.

Thanks for you to shown equator line.

Saya suka melihat demonstrasi yg menakjubkan ini, salam hangat dari Indonesia🇮🇩

That guy who has that whole setup is so awesome I hope he's doing well 3 years later

They should use only 1 bowl that moves to all 3 stations. The grooves in the bowl can easily alter the waters movement

What a hilarious prank 🤣

I loved your face at the end when you said thank you and Ugandan! ❤

I live 12 miles from the Equator. They do the same trick down here in Ecuador. I am guessing Uganda's Equator moves as ours does with each earthquake. So it also works within a few miles of the Equator too. But it is a good trick. When people want to visit the Equator I tell them to bring a GPS and then visit the Middle of the Earth Park.

Угандийские кориолисовцы такие суровые, что им нужны три разных стенда для демонстрации эффекта :). Что-то мне подсказывает, что все эти три установки работают одинаково в любой точке земли. Они и на северном полюсе будут по разному крутить воду :))))

Le touriste filme plus souvent le démonstrateur que l'effet en question ! En tout cas, bravo à lui pour cet ingénieux système lui permettant de gagner de l'argent facilement 😁

Now this is amazing!

fascinating - great job!

The trick is that the direction of rotation depends on the initial position he throws the water. He pretends to stabilize the water but there's still some inertia. First he throws the water with the bucket slightly to the left, the second time is slightly to the right and third time is in the center. You can do it at home.

I can assure you, that it's a trick. The coriolis effect is a very real effect but far to small and insignificant to be determined and demonstrated in such a small experiment. If you knew the mathematical interpretation and have studied fictitious forces in non-inertial frames of reference, you'll know for sure that I'm right. To performe such an experiment you are only allowed to change one variable at the time. That he chooses to use different funnels at different locations should make you suspicious. The trick is probably due to different shapes at the inside of the bottom (the pipe) of the funnels. Furthermore - and that's the worst part - they have made a crucial mistake, and made the funnels with the opposite directon of rotation of what we should expect from the coriolis effect. He might seem to be a nice guy, but he tricked you. Let's be honest - he's demonstrable dishonest.

Thank you ❤

While everyone complains about the distance being too small for the Coriolis effect, I can't believe that in the last case there was no rotation at all. I always thought that there would be a random direction at equator.

In southern hemisphere isn't it should be clockwise and in N-hemi anti clockwise?

I would say there is not enough of a variation to produce such a drastic difference given how close all the bowls are to the equator. I wonder what the tip was to perform the “demonstration”.

I wouldn't be able to stop myself from twisting the flower in other direction and ruin his trick.

that's crazy cool

SGK's Dairykuripukal? I think I'm not alone here.

hello I am from Pontianak city, Indonesia, here also has the equator 0 °

No WAY THIS IS SO EXCITING AND CRAZY

Interesting demonstration, but I’m skeptical that the observed rotation of the draining basin water was actually caused by the Coriolis effect linked to the Earth’s rotation on its axis. Coriolis induced rotation is a real physical phenomenon and the effect can be observed in nature. For example, in the northern hemisphere Coriolis deflection causes large storms, such as hurricanes, to rotate in a counterclockwise direction, while in the southern hemisphere the same weather patterns rotate clockwise. In the experiment shown in the video I’m wondering if other, stronger influences were at play. The basins used appeared to be made of concrete and were roughly shaped. It’s more likely the unique shape of each basin had a dominant influence on the direction the water drained. There’s a classic popular experiment employing water draining from toilets or sinks located in each hemisphere. If the Coriolis effect was the only consideration water should drain from these plumbing fixtures differently in each hemisphere. I’ve carried out this experiment myself with a friend living in Australia (I’m in the U.S.). We observed the same rotation in both hemispheres, due I believe, to the sameness or very similar designs of the toilets featured in our experiment. The Coriolis effect, especially so close to the equator, should impart only a very tiny force on the draining water. A much larger influence would be the shape of the basins, differences in starting water flow, and possibly other variables too. These considerations, much more so than any effects related to the Earth’s rotation, would likely determine how the water drained.

Okay I'm going to study Me at 3 am: mmm yes, water experiment

It's a trick..... The direction of water outer flow depends on the inner structure of the tube which is connected at the bottom.... Spiral threads (clock wise / anti clock wise) inside the tube can regulate the direction of water flow.... Plain tube doesn't produce any whirl in water.

That's actually really interesting ngl

The Coriolis effect is a real phenomenon that influences large-scale systems like weather patterns and ocean currents due to the Earth's rotation. However, its effect on small-scale experiments, like water draining in sinks or bathtubs, is often overstated or misconstrued. In the context of a demonstration at the equator, there are debates and misconceptions regarding whether the Coriolis effect can influence the direction of water flow in a basin or sink. In reality, factors such as the design of the basin, local disturbances, and the initial motion of the water have a more significant impact on the direction in which the water drains rather than the Coriolis effect, especially in small-scale experiments. At the equator, the Coriolis effect is theoretically negligible because it has less influence at or near the equator due to the minimal difference in rotational speed between different latitudes. The effect of the Earth's rotation on small bodies of water, like those in basins or sinks, is often outweighed by other more immediate influences, such as the water's initial motion, the basin's design, or minor local disturbances. While there might be demonstrations claiming to show the Coriolis effect on water drainage at the equator or in different hemispheres, it's essential to approach such experiments critically. Many factors can affect the direction of water drainage in small-scale experiments, making it challenging to attribute the observed result solely to the Coriolis effect. For accurate demonstrations of the Coriolis effect, observations are typically made on larger scales, such as the movement of weather systems or ocean currents, where the influence of the Earth's rotation becomes more apparent.

The coriolis effect makes hurricanes spin counter clockwise in the northern hemisphere and clockwise in the south. Opposite of what he was demonstrating.

If you rotate manually the water that can flows out opposite to what you expect. I think the rotation can also depend of the shape, maybe so near the equation depends only for the shape. Will be more interesting If we can see a swap of that two pots. 😊 This is called scientific method. From Galileo.

Thanks very much

I KNEW ABOUT THE NORTH SOUTH DIRECTIONS BUT I HAD NEVER THOUGHT ABOUT, AT THE EQUATOR. LEARNED SOMETHING KNEW, THANKS

Какой грамотный парень. Я знала про эффект Кореолиса: реки в северном полушарии сильней подмывают правый берег. Но чтоб эффект проявлялся в 10 м от экватора! Не верится.

I lived north of the equator in Germany and live in Tanzania, slightly south of it. I can absolutely approve that the direction of the spin is reversed. Very fascinating to see.

That was amazing.

Outstanding.

I was there in Uganda also way back 2006 up to 2008. 2 years of staying there, Yes people are friendly. I try also their local wine called Waragi.

У него вода не туда крутится. В северном полушарии должно быть против часовой стрелки, а в южном по часовой стрелке, а у него наоборот. И цветок очень быстро вращается. Рисунки на дне чашек видимо предназначены скрыть деформацию формы для нужного направления слива.

That’s wild.

I quote an excerpt (translated into English from the Spanish version, so there may be some difference from the original) from John Lloyd and John Mitchinson's book 'The Great Little Book of Ignorance': The widespread belief that the Coriolis effect, created by the Earth's rotation, causes water to spin as it falls down the drain is not true. Although it influences long-term weather patterns such as hurricanes and ocean currents, it is too weak to have an effect on domestic pipes. The direction in which water falls down the drains depends on the shape of the toilet, the direction from which it is filled, and the vortices introduced by using the water or removing the plug. If a perfectly symmetrical container were filled with water, with a tiny drain and a plug that could be removed without moving the water, and left for a week or so, so that the movement stopped completely, in principle it would be possible detect a small Coriolis effect. (...)

Will they repeat the experiment with the same vessal for the three cases?

It's always awesome to see physical concepts being shown practically

People born in the northern hemisphere have a clockwise "swirl' in the hair

every time you cross the equator the coriolis effect causes the fluid in your brain and the blood in your veins to change direction

Аттракцион для тех кто плохо учился в школе 😂

Living in a country that have an island in at the equator line is a blessing and a curse. It's a blessing because we can almost plant every fruit here, we only have two seasons. And the curse is the weather is hot AF sometimes. Plus, I want snow :(

Wow, thank you, Africa is truly an amazing homeland for all of us. No matter what color you are, if you go back in time far enough, we were from Africa.

Magnetic effect, alive and kicking. That is good to see indeed. Would've like to have it done with same pan.