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Re: (sidenote) Apparent Inconsistencies in Perl Function Naming

by el-moe (Scribe)
on Nov 29, 2000 at 03:09 UTC ( [id://43792]=note: print w/replies, xml ) Need Help??


in reply to Re: Apparent Inconsistencies in Perl Function Naming
in thread Apparent Inconsistencies in Perl Function Naming

Remembering my Earth sciences...

"...you'll be no better than the scientists who claim that the drains drain clockwise in the Northern Hemisphere."

This is directly related to The Coriolis Force.

Although the general consensus is that a sink or bathtub drain is not a controlled environment so the water will drain in the same direction the basin was origonally filled.

Prost,
Moe

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Re: Re: (sidenote) Apparent Inconsistencies in Perl Function Naming
by merlyn (Sage) on Nov 29, 2000 at 03:14 UTC
    I think that was my point. Facts as I know them:
    • There is a force that causes large bodies to take on a direction, like hurricanes and other weather systems, as you point out, called the Coriolis effect.
    • Some scientists (or maybe just backyard scientists) applied this to smaller items, and concluded that a bathtub drain would drain in a particular direction. I heard this repeatedly as a kid, from different sources. (I studied "popular science" way back when.)
    • When carefully examined, random perturbations in initial turbulence, friction, etc etc all far outweigh the Coriolis effect at the scale of the bathroom tub, so this effect could never have been seen.
    That's what I was talking about when I said "some scientists". It was those "backyard scientists".

    -- Randal L. Schwartz, Perl hacker

      Whenever drain direction it comes up I tell people my right shoe wears out faster than my left ;)

      Some people are so gullible...

      To get back on topic... Perl being intuitive... I can hardly believe how cool some of the things I come up with are to me. I am still a fool but I do things now that I never thought were possible. I have yet to generate any complaint about the language or the community.

      Prost,
      Moe

Re: Re: (sidenote) Apparent Inconsistencies in Perl Function Naming
by Anonymous Monk on Jan 24, 2004 at 20:08 UTC
    If I were on an ocean liner, crossing the equator, how far from the equator would I start to notice a change in direction, if I flushed a toilet? Would there be a gradual slowing down of the direction and then at a specific point in time would it just kind of "glug" with no rotation? Also where would this change take place in miles? I take it from what you said that water drains the same way in both hemispheres...how is it that this doesn't change if in fact it doesn't? Reta, Maine, USA

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