From Snails to Whales: Experiement 1 - 808 Commonwealth Bathroom

Thursday, July 29, 2010

Experiement 1 - 808 Commonwealth Bathroom

Aim:
Determine the direction of the draining of water in the bathroom sink and the toilet at 808 commonwealth Avenue. On the basis of the determination, predict the direction of the draining water in a sink and toilet located in Australia.

Method:
1) We went to the bathroom in the building and filled a sink with water, preventing it from draining till it was stable. After the water looked stable, the drain was left open for the water to drain in which ever direction.
2) After the sink drained out, we went to a toilet and flushed the toilet which has stable water in order for the water in the toilet to drain in whichever direction.

Observations:
1) When we drained the stable water in the sink, the water seemed to drain in a clockwise direction after 5-10 seconds.
2) When the toilet was flushed, the water seemed to flush out in a clockwise direction also.

Analyses:
1) The water could have drained in the clockwise direction in the sink as we were located in the Northern Hemisphere and due to the earth's rotation on its axis. The earth rotates towards the right across longitudes causing a coriolis effect. The coriolis effect essentially deflects the water from its vertical position across longitudes resulting in a clockwise spin of the draining water. The movement of the water would follow the pattern depicted in figure 1.1 in the northern hemisphere.

On the basis of the coriolis effect, the inverse phenomenon should happen in the southern hemisphere in Australia. As the earth rotates eastward on its axis, the rotation should deflect the water in the inverse direction in comparison to that in the northern hemisphere. This should result in the anti-clockwise spin of the water in the sink as well as the toilet. The movement as per the coriolis effect is depicted in fugure 1.1 in the southern hemisphere.

Figure 1.1 - Coriolis Effect in Different Hemispheres due to Inertial Forces.

2) However, the coriolis forces are very small and they may not have an actual effect on the direction of the draining water. There are a number of other factors that may affect the direction of the water including air pressures, turbulence, the shape as well as the design of the sink and toilet etc.
It could have been possible that the low or high air pressure in Boston at the time of the experiment may have caused an inaccuracy as the coriolis forces may not be as powerful in high pressure zones as compared to low pressure zones.
Also, it may be possible that the sink is designed in a manner that the water would flow in a clockwise direction. Another possibility in the toilet may be the direction the water that flows in may be towards the right such that the drain direction would come out to be clockwise. Also, there may be a possibility that in the drain of the sink the some of the holes were jammed due to dirt and hence, the water may have been forced to only pass through a hole that may result in a clockwise direction by default.

Conclusion:
Hence, the above factors may not depict an accuracy in the observation or the coreolis analysis of the observations. We only performed the method once and no more. As there were not a lot of results that showed the same pattern, the observation was based on only one performance of the experiment. Repeating the experiment in different weather situations at at different times of the day would help in gaining better and more accurate observations. I personally believe that the observations were merely a coincidence and that the results would differ the next time I would repeat the same procedure. I do not believe in the coreolis effect causing the clockwise direction in the water and I think the result in a completely controlled experiment with flat surfaced containers and a vertical source of water would result in an ambiguous direction of the water. I think the water in both Boston and Australia could go in any direction.

References:
Coreolis Effect: http://abyss.uoregon.edu/~js/glossary/coriolis_effect.html
Coreolis Effect: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coriolis_effect
Coreolis Effect: http://www.theozonehole.com/coriolis.htm
Figure 1.1 : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Coriolis_effect14.png

Akshat Jain

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From Snails to Whales

Welcome to Snails to Whales, Bruce Berman's blog focused on both the little and the big things that make Boston Harbor such an interesting and extraordinary place to live, work and play.

With 50 miles of protected water, four sheltered bays, seven river systems, 34 islands and a nine-foot average tide, Boston Harbor is one of the most diverse urban ecosystems in America.

This blog focuses on the flora and fauna of Boston Harbor and Massachusetts Bay - on the beach, the shore, and the harbor islands, and in the cleaner waters of Boston Harbor and Mass Bay - including this ecosystems most important species - people.

During the summer, it is also a place for my Boston University Students and my colleagues at Save the Harbor / Save the Bay to share their work and experiences.

Where I am coming from...

Love that clean(er) water
Learning about the Boston Harbor Cleanup from the waterway’s eyes, ears, and mouthpiece

By Brian Fitzgerald, BU Bridge

On Georges Island, Bruce Berman talks with his students about the history of the Boston Harbor Cleanup,
which is largely complete. Photo by Vernon Doucette

Bruce Berman, aboard a ferry from Boston’s Long Wharf to Georges Island, poses a question to his students: “How clean is clean enough?”

He’s talking about the water below.

It’s a brilliant July day, with the smell of salt spray in the air. The sky is clear, and so is the ocean. But there was a time when Boston Harbor wasn’t so clean, when the stench of sewage assaulted the nostrils of anyone who went near it.

Berman is the communications director for Save the Harbor/Save the Bay, a public-interest environmental advocacy organization whose mission is to help restore and protect the harbor and Massachusetts Bay. He also teaches a Metropolitan College summer course called Politics, Public Relations, and Public Policy: The Boston Harbor Cleanup.

“The Boston Harbor Cleanup is an amazing success story, and I just love to share it with students,” says Berman, noting that the harbor’s “bad old days” weren’t that long ago. Those were the days when untreated human waste, syringes, condoms, and tampon applicators routinely washed ashore. The antiquated sewage treatment plants on Deer Island and Nut Island were so poorly designed and maintained that they flooded during even mild rainstorms, sending millions of gallons of untreated waste directly into the harbor.

Since then, bacteria counts in the water have decreased by more than two-thirds. Now the harbor teems with plants and animals, and people can legally dig for clams on Carson Beach in South Boston, which was unheard of in the 1980s.

“It was one of the filthiest harbors in America, and now it’s one of the cleanest,” says Berman. “What I’m trying to impress upon students is how this incredible comeback occurred, and how business, advocacy groups, environmentalists, and government can affect the outcome of large projects such as the Boston Harbor Cleanup through negotiation.”

Paradise regained

Berman points to the left as the boat cruises by the cleanup’s centerpiece: the gargantuan white egglike tanks of the Deer Island waste treatment plant, which in 1995 replaced the antiquated facility. The plant treats an average of 350 million gallons of sewage a day.

“And what comes out of the Deer Island treatment plant?” he asks. Berman, his booming baritone competing with the roar of planes taking off from Logan Airport, has a habit of putting students on the spot to see if they’re paying attention.

“The outfall pipe,” say several simultaneously. “Treated water,” chime in a few more.

“That’s right,” he says with a smile. “The plant separates the solid and liquid waste, and it pumps the treated water through the 9.5-mile outfall pipe, which empties into Massachusetts Bay. The resulting sludge is converted to high-grade fertilizer.”

Now Berman returns to his original question: “How clean is clean enough?” There’s no quick and clear answer to this one. “It’s a question that at the end of the day the federal courts had to decide.”

In 1985, a landmark federal court case required that the harbor’s beaches be made swimmable and fishable by 2000. Save the Harbor/Save the Bay was formed the next year to raise public awareness of the $4.5 billion Boston Harbor Cleanup. Sewer ratepayers in the 43 cities and towns financing the project cried foul over the prospect of astronomically rising bills, but because of the determination of environmental advocacy groups such as Berman’s, the cleanup was largely completed on schedule.

Berman says it isn’t finished, however. There are still frequent beach closures because the counts of Enterococcus bacteria exceed the federal and state standard for swimming. The culprit: filthy storm water and sewage, much of it from leaky pipes and illegal hookups emptying into storm sewers, and then into the harbor.

“So is the harbor clean enough,” the Springfield native asks his students, “when you can’t swim in it one out of five days in the summer?”

Work to be done

Berman and his class look out from Georges Island to Gallops Island (left) and the white tanks of the waste treatment plant on Deer Island (right). Photo by Vernon Doucette

This summer the state approved one of the last parts of the cleanup: the construction, by 2011, of a 2.1-mile tunnel near the Dorchester and South Boston shorelines that will hold sewage and storm water during bad weather. It then will be pumped to Deer Island for treatment.

Berman is ecstatic over this development, the result of “tireless negotiation and consensus-building,” he says. “After 2011, we’re looking at beach closings once every five years, when there is a major storm, instead of once every five days.”

But he is not about to let his guard down. To say that he is a man obsessed with the harbor cleanup would be an understatement. Berman is also Save the Harbor/Save the Bay’s “Baywatcher,” and he lives on his 40-foot trawler Verandah. Polluters beware: if you’re discharging oil or sewage into Boston Harbor, the Baywatcher just might be watching.

He is quick to point out that his zealotry is not just on behalf of the harbor’s flora and fauna. “The harbor is for everyone,” he says. “If you’re from a working class or poor family in Boston, and you can’t afford a Cape Cod getaway in the summer, a clean harbor is important. The same is true if you’re a tourist vacationing in Boston or you happen to live in a pricey waterfront condo.”

Accordingly, Berman, who was a political consultant and contributing editor to the Phoenix newspaper before joining Save the Harbor/Save the Bay nearly 10 years ago, also teaches his students about the harbor’s role in the city’s economy. He points out that in the early 1990s, just a few ferries cruised the harbor’s waters. Today, more than 100,000 people visit its islands each summer, discovering their ecological and historic treasures.

“The best way to protect the harbor cleanup,” Berman tells his students, “is to make sure that the public has access to the resources and can see a return on its investment.”

Trevor Kosmolsick (MET’05) has lived in Boston for seven years, but until taking Berman’s course, he had never been to the waterfront. “I’ve also wanted to go camping in the area, but I never knew that you could camp on a few of the islands,” he says. “Bruce Berman is not only a great professor, but the ultimate tour guide.”

He also backs up his words with actions. Sometimes he takes off his shirt and dives in the water to demonstrate to passing boaters that it’s safe to swim. To show people on ferries that fishing is safe, he’s been known to grab one of the bluefish or striped bass he’s caught and (very carefully) plant a wet kiss on it.

“What I want everyone to understand is that investment in the environment really does pay off,” says Berman. “We’re willing to pay for a clean Boston Harbor, so we should enjoy it.”

From Snails to Whales

Thursday, July 29, 2010

Experiement 1 - 808 Commonwealth Bathroom

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