Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

OK,
I've been asked this about a hundred times and even by people on this forum. I conducted an exaustive scientific forey into whether the water whirlpool turns backwards (counter clock wise) in a toilet.
These are the materials that I used:
1. toilet
2. sink
3. another sink
4. water
5. stopper
6. hand
And these are the methods:
1. looked at my toilet after flushing, and realized that the way they are constructed here that the water does not turn, it goes straight down.
2. Filled my sink with water while washing my clothes by hand today (hey, you're going back in time when you came to Perú) and observed the whirlpool as it went down, and realized that I had to make allowances for the faucett (Farah that is) effect (hereafter refered to as F.A., as my faucett is off center (a little to the right) with the drain and if running while the water is going down the drain it causes it to turn in a clockwise direction everytime. So in order to avoid the F.A. I had to shut the faucett off, sometimes great advances in science are simple.
3. half of the time it was counter clock wise and the other half was clockwise.
4. tried another sink and found the same thing.
5. found I could reverse the direction of the whirlpool with my hand several times if I had enough water in the sink.
Conclusion:
1. Whatever the forces are that cause the direction of the whirlpool to rotate in a certain are very weak. (I think it's the rotation of the earth)
2. I think my pulling the stopper out of the drain invalidated all of my results.
3. I must find a toilet that whirls as it goes down
4.And that I wasted a lot of valuable time, and so did you by reading this post.
But in the name of scientific inquiry I promise not to give up until I solve this perplexing mystery. I will keep you all posted.

Boy, you sure do lead an exciting life in Peru! Why are you there anyway? A good friend of mine is from Lima, his mother still lives there I think but most of his siblings are now here in the States.

Bob, the toilets at UAMS could REALLY flush backwards when I went to college there. One day I saw a medical student cussing up a storm as he walked down the hallway with water and **** all over him. Troublesome patient, I thought. Then when I walked into the restroom I saw water and **** all over the wall, stall, and ceiling. Perplexed as to what was going on, I did my thing and then flushed the urinal. It exploded on me and blew water (the yellow kind) clear back to the opposite wall. I did my own cussing trip down the hallway. A major water line had broken near the campus, and the water line filled with air when it was dug out and repaired with a new section of pipe. The air trapped inside was compressed when the water pressure was restored, and the big compressed air bubble migrated to our restroom. The janitor on our floor really had the work cut out for him the next day! Quite a few students got the BIG SURPRISE, and there were numerous more bubbles over the next couple of days to keep our defenses up.

I would say your toilets flush correctly no matter which way they turned as long as the bubble never shows up. My experience led me to an idea on how to patent a Rosie O'Donnell signature model bidet.

Hi Jeffry and Phil,
Actually some people here did ask me that, (one anyway) and numerous other people have asked me too. I am not finished with my exaustive testing yet, so the formal presentation will not be for a while (if I do not get thrown off of the Ric forum that is). Actually it is a myth (I think).
And I have heard of the outwards flush also, and thank God it hasn't happened to me.

Sewer System or Septic Tanks, Bob?

I think was awake that day in science class: above the equator, clockwise; on the equator, straight down; below the equator, counter-clockwise.

I have done some more extensive scientific testing here and have to give counter clockwise a slight edge, I am fairly close to the equator and it does sometimes go straight down (the toilets do) and other times actually goes clockwise but there is no strong force here either way (this is in a sink with a lot of water in it) and it must be because of my proximity to the equator, thanks Jerry.
I think it goes right out to the sewers here Rob.

Wait....You have toilets that flush? WOW!

Depends how much you drank that night ;^}