First Class (Romina Duarte)

My name is Romina and I'm a transfer student from New Jersey. I grew up about half an hour away from the famous Jersey Shore (I promise you, the Jersey shore isn't like the show). The ocean has always been a big part of my summer, and it has always been a place that has given me wonderful memories. After Sandy, it seems that the entire state's attention is to rebuilding the shore, and it has really opened my eyes to how deeply important the shore is to New Jersey's culture. It gives me great pride to be from a state that takes such pride in nature. As for me, I'm a Criminal Justice major and it's my senior year of college, so I'm pretty excited. The reasons that convinced me to take this course are that it's an interesting subject and that my life consists of having friends in the Marine Biology field. Having a roommate that lives and breathes nature can sometimes lead to some interest as well. I'm excited to finally understand the species that she declares when we go out to the shore.

As for the field trip from today's class, we had two separate tests. During the first one, (which was the presentation by the professor) I thought I saw the water drain clockwise. I was surprised because I thought it would drain counterclockwise. However, I didn't feel sure about what I had seen because the view wasn't ideal. The rest of my team disagreed with me, so we decided to test this again. In this test, we all agreed that the water was draining counterclockwise. After we all agreed on what we had seen, we decided to conclude the test.

According to my research, the idea that water drains in a different direction depending on the hemisphere you are on is a myth. As this website (http://www.loc.gov/rr/scitech/mysteries/coriolis.html) states, this is a myth that has come from the Coriolis force. This is a force that can be seen from hurricanes, but this force is too weak to truly affect draining systems. Another source, the Huffington Post, (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/25/water-drain-equator_n_2010379.html) has even taken this debate and set the record straight on this question. They, like the Library of Congress, have stated that this is a myth for smaller drainage systems, but that this does occur in higher scale natural events such as hurricanes. For my last source, I checked the Scientific American. In this article, (http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=can-somebody-finally-sett) they state the exact same explanation as the sources above for this misunderstanding of the Coriolis force. After researching this, the debate and difference of opinion in class makes much more sense.