BarryGrussling.com

While watching my sisters copies of Simpsons this afternoon, I was caught by one episode in which Lisa makes bart believe that the direction the water swirls in the sink and the toilet is a result of the Coriolis effect. Most "normal" people wouldn't give this much thought, but it really interested me.

Two things about this are interesting:

1. The fact that a nationally syndicated cartoon would talk about the Coriolis effect
2. The fact that it is wrong!

While the Coriolis effect does does [a,e]ffect weather patterns and such on the surface of the earth, causing differing rotation between the Northern and Southern hemisphere, it is NOT strong enough to interact with the swirling of the water in the toilet/sink.

While on the topic of the Simpsons, have you checked out http://www.snpp.com? These people are fanatical about Simpsons. Matt should be proud.