Hoping someone can explain in basic terms.

In the UK the sun rises in the east and set's in the west, appearing to rotate clockwise.

Will use Australia as example, I presume sun still travels east to west however would it appear to rotate anti-clockwise ?

Yes, the old problem of saying something turns clockwise or anticlockwise but it depends which direction you are looking down the axis.

Same with a car wheel, all four wheels rotate in the same physical direction but if the car is going forwards, looking at the car from the offside all the wheels are going clockwise, but look from the nearside and they are all going anti-clockwise. I'll let you work out what happens if you look from the middle of the car.

Still confused . . . which is not that unusual.

Spin a coin/ball on a table, look at which direction it is spinning when you look at it from above, then think about what direction it would be spinning if you looked from below (or if you have a glass table you can actually look).

Emptying bath water definitely changes from anti-clockwise to clockwise from one side of the equator to the other. Seen it.

I'm afraid that is a bit of a myth. The effect of the rotation of the earth exists but the bath water stillness and plughole would have to be near perfect for this to be the overriding factor. The movement of the water before pulling the plug, intentional design or minor imperfections are the dominant factors that govern the direction.

If you pre-spin the water slightly then pull the plug you can see it happen for yourself.

If the water is already spinning, you can convince it to spin the other way and it will remain in that direction usually.

Sorry, DD . Have to disagree. I have had a bath in the northern hemisphere and the southern hemisphere, on the ocean waves. The emptying bath water changed direction when emptying in spiral or swirl, (whatever you want to call it.) from the northern hemisphere to the southern hemisphere.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bang/handson/plugholes.shtml

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coriolis_force#Draining_in_bathtubs_and_toilets

The only scientific experiments that confirmed this effect had to have the water left totally undisturbed for 18 hours prior to the plughole being opened. How minute the force is was demonstrated when it took 12 minutes to start vortexing.

Sod the science. Scientists are not always correct. I have confirmed it and so have the following. Just maybe there is too much electrical interference on land to mess things up a bit. High rise apartments and koala bears.


Andrew Dickens is wrong. The water does vortex in different directions north and south of the equator - dodgy wash basin manufacurers my eye! I've observed the phenomenon in my own hotel room, as I'm sure have millions of others.

Luka Clarke, Lisbon Portugal

The Coriolis effect does indeed influence the direction that water 'vortices' down a plughole - I have tried this several times during my time as a merchant seaman, at various latitudes North and South of the equator. The effect is stronger closer to the poles, at the equator the water can rotate in either direction, and on one occasion near the equator, appeared to go straight down the plughole without any rotation !!

Ray Crabtree, Loddon UK

As to your second question, I believe Mercury does not spin on its axis but maintains its position as it orbits the sun, leading to a permanent day side and a permanent night side as does our moon. And to add to the other debate, I have seen the water rotate one way in a bath in Melbourne and the other way in my bath at home, both baths were pretty similar in structure!

Rich Pollard, Leeds UK

Sorry but The guy at the equator that showed me A. didn't charge me B. used one plastic bucket with a hole in the bottom (none of this three sink nonsense) C. allowed me to try and force the water to rotate in different directions, each time it returned to the direction it started in depending on which side of the equator we were.

Chris Smith, Edinburgh Scotland

I have walked across the equator 7 times now!!! The reason the water spins different ways on different sides is related to the moon and the earth, the sun and the other planets!!! - and the way the earth is tilted!!!!

suzy barker,

Still non the wiser haha

You're non the wiser? My last 2 brain cells have just exploded

So you're still totally foxed then Dilly?

Yes me too, mine are bouncing around. I just want to get a simple answer a yes or no.

Does the sun appear to travel anti clockwise downunder.

Definitely not............ Probably.

No.

However, there are some people in Australia who think that their continent should be at the top of maps and the globe, and the UK and Europe at the bottom. If their idea is to put them next to the North Pole, then the sun would rise in the West, and therefore time would go backwards.

I lived in southern Africa for some years. The sun rose on the right and set on the left - it took me ages to get used to it. I don't think I ever really did, after a liftetim of 'left to right'. Likewise, the star constellations moved the 'wrong way' round the sky.

Thanks for basic response, I of course know the sun stands still but just wanted the basic answer you provided.

Earth orbits around the Sun, the Sun orbits around the centre of the Milky Way, the Milky Way in turn is also moving but the scale is so huge it can't be determined whether its in an orbit or a straight(ish) line.