Uganda
First of all, I listen to the show often and enjoy it very much.
I was enjoying the report by Martin Stott about Uganda when he
started describing an encounter at the equator with a man who was
demonstrating how the water emptied from a bowl swirled one direction
north of the equator, swirled in the opposite direction south of the
equator and not at all exactly at the equator.
I am afraid Martin has been taken in by a charlatan.
Please go to the following link for an explanation.
www.ems.psu.edu/~fraser/Bad/BadCoriolis.html
Not only is the effect very difficult to observe on a scale as small
as a bowl even under ideal conditions, the effect decreases as one
approaches the equator (it is a maximum at the poles). At the equator
it is zero and a few feet from the equator the effect is very very
very small.
Eric
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