A few weeks ago we took a day trip down to the equator. The town near Kayabwe created a tourist stop along the equator line with a monument, shops, and restaurants. The equator sign is only about 30 miles southwest from us but the roads to get to it aren't the best so it took us upwards to 2 hours to get there. We packed up and headed out with our trusty driver Henry (pretty much an honorary EMI staff at this point because he drives all the design teams to our site visits every week).
One of my main goals was to get a handstand picture in the two hemispheres simultaneously and to just hang out in the area...check and check...literally.
After some shopping and lunch we headed to a crocodile farm before heading back into Kampala that evening.
The Famous Coriolis Scam
One of the things the group was super excited to see was the coriolis effect myth at the equator. The implication is that the coriolis effect makes water drain counter-clockwise in the Northern Hemisphere but clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere. At the equator monument, there are three different bowls set up - one on the southern hemisphere side of the sign, one in the northern hemisphere side, and one right on the line. IA local guide will conveniently show you a demonstration (for a "small" fee- or however much they can rip you off for ) that “proves” this phenomenon.
First the southern hemisphere bowl up and put a flower on top so you can observe the rotational direction of the water as it drains. Then they walk you over to the northern hemisphere bowl and do the same, making sure to note that the flower is spinning the opposite direction. Then they fill the bowl right on the equator line with water, place the flower and the water just sucks straight out of the drain with no vortex being created in either direction. Voila!
Except not...while the Coriolis effect is very real, its effects would actually never be noticeable in this sort of situation. It’s actually weakest at the equator. The experiment above is a trick because the bowl of water at the equator was almost motionless before the plug was pulled, while the other bowls were poured in with momentum, which caused the vortex. In reality, variables such as how you pour water in, the shape of the tub, and many other factors will dictate how the water drains, not the hemisphere you are in.
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