Today's question:
On windy days the water in our toilet bowl rolls back and forth; the more wind, the more motion in the water. I could understand this if I was on a ship or at the top of the Empire State Building, but we are talking about a toilet that is bolted to a concrete slab. The same thing happened when we lived in Oklahoma. What's going on?
I know, I know, ask me. It is the effect of winds passing over the vents on your roof and changing the pressure in your pipes.
It is officially known as Bernoulli's Principle, after the 18th-century Swiss mathematician and physicists who first figured it out.
According to scienceclarified.com, Bernoulli's Principle "holds that for fluids in an ideal state, pressure and density are inversely related: in other words, a slow-moving fluid exerts more pressure than a fast-moving fluid.
"Since 'fluid' in this context applies equally to liquids and gases, the principle has as many applications with regard to airflow as to the flow of liquids. One of the most dramatic everyday examples of Bernoulli's principle can be found in the airplane, which stays aloft due to pressure differences on the surface of its wing; but the truth of the principle is also illustrated in something as mundane as a shower curtain that billows inward."
I prefer to think of it as "that wind thing."
source: http://www.azcentral.com/story/claythompson/2015/07/23/toilet-physics-wind-water-science/30595665/
by Clay Thompson, The Republic
http://www.thisoldtoilet.com
No comments:
Post a Comment