First Trip to Boston Harbor (second class)

Today was our second class learning about Boston Harbor. Today our professor plans our first trip to the Boston Harbor in a ferry that we board at the Aquarium. During our second class the professor talks about the importance of our own observation in order to study science. In our first trip we have the assignment of observing the island, the ocean, etc. During this class I was able to experiences how important to observe and to talk about our observation because people can see thing differently but not everybody can be correct.

I arrived at the Aquarium Station around 12:00Noon and grab something to eat. At 1:10PM, we all got together before boarding the boat and talk about what we need it to observed and learn from this trip.  It was 1:10PM and it was a busy time at the Aquarium a lot of people walking around the area and also people observing the ocean.  Before taking our ferry we took a look at the ocean tides and we noticed that the tides at the time was really low. I can noticed that the tides were low because in the rock I was able to observed that it had a darker color where there was not water. It seem that the tides get really high during different times of the day. The temperature was around 90 degree and the sun was strong. At the end of our trip I observed the tides and were getting little higher. The professor explained that the tides usually get high after 1:20Noon.

We board our ferry that was going to take us to see the Boston Harbor Island. The first things that I observed while we start our trip on the Ferry was that the Boston Harbor was most cover by land and land that are protected for Hurricanes. The ferry stopped twice one time at Quincy and the other at Boston Logan Airport. The professor was talking about all the changes that happen at Boston Harbor. Boston Harbor went thru a cleaning process for many years that cost a lot of money in order to make it in one of the most cleaning ocean in the United States. The professor was talking to us about the prices of the houses that went up because Boston Harbor was convert into a clean and safety place for people to live. But the process of making Boston Harbor a cleaning place with real estate prices going up does not stop there because is becoming a large industry. The people want to open business as restaurant closer to Boston Harbor. I also observed that in few of the Island, observed people walking and swimming while other people where enjoying the whether in their boat. The professor also talks to us about of the Island that have a shelter in the island and also about the bridge that connect to the Island that only one car can be on the bridge because the bridge is really old.

In this trip I was able to learn a lot about the Boston Harbor. This trip makes me exited to discover about Boston Harbor species and nature. The professor also talks about the process to clean our wastewater into safety water. I didn’t know that Boston Harbor was the place were our wastewater run to and goes to the process of cleaning. It was amazing to learn the process of the pipes and the process of cleaning the water. It took time and money in order to clean the Boston Harbor we should continue on keeping it clean and each of us can continue making a difference in our cities. 

Waste Not, Want Not

In all honesty, I think the lesson on how waste is currently processed in and around Boston is pretty frickin amazing. Can you say frickin on this blog? What’s this thing rated? To not only have corrected the problem of dumping pure waste into the harbor, but to have done so in such an ingenious manner is just fascinating to me. Crap becomes clean water and fertilizer for sale. It is so simple and efficient that it is brilliant. That’s not the best thing I observed today though. It is just one of the reasons why I observed what I did. The best thing that I saw today was a revitalized Boston Harbor not only teeming with marine life (ok, I didn’t see marine life with my own eyes TODAY, but Professor Berman seems like a quasi-reputable source), but a harbor teeming with people there to experience it. Honestly, they were everywhere. They were crowding Long Wharf to see the sights and experience all the activities. They were filling up every boat that docked looking for more patrons. They were hiking the hills and trails of the Harbor Islands themselves. They were out on the harbor in their own personal motorboats, sailboats, kayaks and I’m pretty sure this one guy was in an inner tube which I’m also pretty sure can’t be exceptionally safe. They were even flooding the Boston Harbor Island info stand by Government Center. Even as folks were getting off our boat in Quincy and Professor Berman mentioned that nobody would be getting on, boom; another large group of people jumps on the boat destined for the inner harbor. They were everywhere and excited to be there. Anyone that grew up in and around Boston can tell you about the jokes they heard about the harbor growing up. They were limitless. Honestly I think those jokes subconsciously have helped deter me from spending virtually any time on the harbor. To cruise around today though, I was amazed not only by the state of the harbor and the islands, but how popular they had become. What did I observe today? I witnessed one of Boston’s most important landmarks was back (at low tide moving out, 1:20pm, about 83 degrees), better than ever and the evidence was everywhere for everyone to see. Oh, and I met a hot lady Park Ranger in Faneuil Hall. All in all, a pretty good day.

Until tomorrow, harbor enthusiasts,

-Shaun Bossio

Which way does water spin?

Good morning class,

My name is Michael Moran and I am an incoming freshman for the 2012-2013 school year here at Boston University. I am currently enrolled in CGS the General Studies program here at Boston University and would like to go into the SMG after my sophomore year. I am from Marshfield Massachusetts just a short drive south of Boston. Being from a beach town I have always been fascinated with the ocean. I am looking forward to the next few weeks.

1. What way does water spin in Boston?

                During our experiment to the women's room my group and I came to the conclusion that the water spins counter clockwise. Before doing any research I believed it was this way either because of some sort of gravitational pull by the moon, or just because that is how the designers design the sinks. However the real reason why the water in the northern hemisphere spins differently then the southern is because of the Coriolis effect.

2. Which way does water spin in Australia?
 
              Before we started the experiment like I said before in the last question I believed the water spinned clockwise in the southern hemisphere including Australia because of a gravitation pull or design. However the reason is called the Coriolis effect. On "Science made Simple" (http://www.sciencemadesimple.co.uk/page51g.html) they describe the Coriolis effect to have a major impact in not only the spinning of the water in sinks and toilets, but the weather, hurricanes, tornados and all other major storms. 

Hi my name is....What? Who? and the Water does What?

Good Morning Class,
My name is Chynna Pope.  I am a native Bostonian.  I absolutely love everything that this wonderful city has to offer.  I am extremely active, and when the summer comes around I can't wait to get out in a kayak, paddle board, or sail boat.  I love hanging out in the esplanade by the water.  And the best views of Boston are no doubt from a boat in the Boston Harbor.  I have recently been getting involved with a few charities and projects in Boston.  Many of which improve the city and its many features.  I think this class will give me insight and knowledge necessary to be a better advocate for Boston and perhaps find someway to get involved with the cleaning of the Boston Harbor and other waterways around Boston.

As for out little experiment in the ladies room, I thought that water would drain counter clockwise.  My group stood divided with two of us agreeing on this point and the other thinking the opposite.  This caused a huge riff in our group and we got in a huge fight leading one of the members to drop the class all together.   Just kidding.  Our disagreement was purely out of ignorance not out of  conviction.  I don't think that any of us really had any concrete idea of what to expect.   When we did the experiment in the sink we witnessed the water indeed draining counter-clockwise.  We all agreed about that.  We repeated the experiment again to make sure our observations were correct.  From what our eyes were telling us, water did indeed drain in a counterclockwise whirlpool around the drain.  When asked to consider this same experiment in Australia, we again disagreed in our prediction.  Again, with one thinking it went counterclockwise, and the other two thinking the effect would be opposite in a different hemisphere thus forcing the water to drain in a clockwise fashion.  My group is planning a trip to Australia on the days off between our classes, so when we get back we will report.  (Wishful thinking)

With remedial knowledge of such things and light research, it is clear to me that the water will drain differently in different hemispheres.  After all, they drive on the other side of the road down there....everything else must be backwards too!  All sources I consulted on the matter mention the Colioris effect.  The degree in which this theory is supported or challenged varies.  In one article one scientist credits this phenomenon on the Colioris effect, while another accepts his definition of what the effect is he is skeptical of its involvement in changing the spin direction of the water in different hemispheres.  Scientist Brad Hanson, a staff geologist with Louisiana Geological Survey presents the idea that this effect makes the water on the bottom spin faster congruent with the direction of the objects rotation.  WIth the water moving slower on the surface it create the illusion that the water is spinning in the opposite direction.  While agreeing with the effect of the Colioris effect,  Fred W. Decker, Professor Emeritus of Oceanic and Atmospheric Science and Oregon State University notes that it is probably not the reason for the water draining in different directions. he states,  The local irregularities of motion are so dominant that the Coriolis effect is not likely to be revealed."* So he agrees with the change in direction change and with the effect of the effect but thinks other forces contribute to the phenomenon.

I guess we'll find out the answers in class today!

*http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=can-somebody-finally-sett

Does the sink drain different in different hemispheres?

Hello All,

My name is Trevor O'Leary, I grew up in Wellesley, MA, but currently am living in Natick, MA where I just bought a house. This is my final year for my undergraduate degree at Boston University, and my only and final class I have to take to complete my degree in Management Studies. I have studied at a number of schools prior to coming to BU. I currently work as a Firefighter/EMT for Wellesley Fire Department, and have been doing so full time for about a year and a half. However, I have been working as a firefighter since I was 18 years old.

I think this class will be very interesting, because even though I have lived in the metro Boston area since I was 8 years old, I have seldom spent much time truly studying and observing the Harbor. I have always taken it for granted what I take trips up to the aquarium or to Joe's American Bar and grill on the seaport. I like the adventurous concept of this course, and how it does not consist of reviewing textbooks and old nautical maps in a classroom for 50 hours.

I honestly can say I have never really thought to look and see what direction the water spins when going down the drain in a sink. It was an interesting task that I had never been asked to do in any of the prior science classes I had taken. In the process of this observation we used our hands to clog up the sink and allow it to fill; once filled we then released the plug and watched as the water disappeared into the drainage system. My original guess was that the water spun in a counterclockwise direction, and I was able to test this hypothesis with my observations in this experiment. The decision of which way the water spun in the sink was not clear on then first attempt of clogging up the drain. The water does not create a spinning motion on the surface until it is shallow enough to create the whirlpool effect. After completing the experiment a few times our group unanimously agreed that the water was spinning in a clockwise direction, disproving my original hypothesis.

When looking to come up with an answer for the question of "Does the water drain in the opposite direction in Australia?" I did some careful research about the Coriolis Effect, and how it presents itself between the two hemispheres. When looking at larger storm cells and weather patterns that travel a long distance and are slow moving there is a great movement in one direction or the other based on the hemisphere. After viewing a few videos, reading a couple of blogs and articles, and then attempting the  experiment again in my own sink, I have come to the conclusion that the Coriolis Effect is not strong enough to take hold of such a small body of water, and the direction the water drains in is relevant more to other external forces, such as, sink bowl shape, amount of water forcing down, and the direction the drain is lifted from. Once the water gets into a swirl its not going to have the energy to stop it, and if you open the drain on one side versus the other, the water will attempt to spin to follow the path of the least resistance and negate the Coriolis Effect.

I am looking forward to our class today, and I hope to see you all in an hour and a half.

Trevor O'Leary

Introduction and First Experiment

Good morning all.  My name is Chris Vaughan and I am a psychology major as well as a database analyst for the medical school.  I grew up in southern Maine and spent a great deal of time as a child on Casco Bay and in Bar Harbor and became very familiar with those ocean coastal areas.  I have now lived in Boston since 1995; however, I know very little about the Boston Harbor.

Last night during our first experiment we tried to determine what direction the water swirled as it went down the drain of the sink.  All of us agreed that the water moved in a clockwise motion.  According to an article found on the Library of Congress' website (http://loc.gov/rr/scitech/mysteries/coriolis.html) the direction the water turns as it goes down the drain has to do with the way the water is introduced to the geometric structure of the drain.  The article also mentions that people would like to believe the Coriolis force affects the flow of water down a drain it is not true because the force is too weak to affect such a small body of water.  This force is cause by the earths rotation and does effect the directions in which hurricanes turn in the northern and southern hemisphere, but unfortunately it does not effect our toilets, sinks, or bathtub drains.

Chris Vaughan

Introduction and Water Experiment Thoughts

Hi everyone. My name is Danielle, and I work at BU as an administrator. I'm taking this class as I slowly work towards a bachelor's degree in English. I've taken a marine science class before (twice actually) where I went to Cozumel, Mexico. I learned to scuba dive and the history and life on and around the coral reefs. My second time around I did a research project on the effects of the hurricanes on Christmas tree worms in the coral reef. I moved to Boston in the last two years, and want to learn more about the harbor.

For the draining water experiment, my group observed water flowing clockwise down the drain. We filled up the sink three quarters of the way so we would be able to see a clear funnel shape form as the water drained. I believe that water in the southern hemisphere drains clockwise as well down ordinary sinks. I believe this because I remember reading an article on a website ages ago from somewhere not as reputable such as cracked.com. For this post, I researched some on the web and came across Alistair B. Fraser's website on the Coriolis effect (http://www.ems.psu.edu/~fraser/Bad/BadCoriolis.html). Fraser is a professor emeritus of meteorology at Penn St University (http://www.ems.psu.edu/~fraser/cv/).

Basically, his website states that the Coriolis force is weak, and is only able to have an effect on large weather systems and other large bodies of water as the effect takes a significant amount of time to build up with any noticeable force. You can, however, replicate an experiment that will make the water spin in the opposite direction expected by introducing the rotation to the water that you wish it to drain. More information on the experiment can be found on his website under 'Do it yourself fakery'.  In the end, my conclusion is that water doesn't actually drain a particular way (clockwise versus counterclockwise), but is influenced by the rotation of the water when it was introduced and disturbed.

See you all in class!
Danielle

Introduction and First Class

Hello everyone!

My name is Jessica Gutierrez, I am from El Salvador and I been living in the United States for 10 years.  I work as a Family Support Worker at Riverside Early Head Start and study Psychology at Boston University. I decided to take this class because it will be great experiences to know about the Boston Harbor and also to learn about new thing that we can do as citizens to protect our ocean. I went to Costa Rica with a Study Abroad program at Bunker Hill Community College for an Environmental Science class and it was an experience that I will never forget and hope that this will be added to my favorite experiences.

During our first class I was enjoying our professor stories and his enthusiasm about teaching us about Boston Harbor. 

Our first trip was to the Ladies Bathroom with a question of figuring out if we fill out the sink of water, and when we drain water out of the sink is was going to do clockwise or counterclockwise motion. I was in a group of three people including me and we all decided that the water was counterclockwise. We noticed that after filling up the sink with water and let the water drain the water was forming circles in a counterclockwise motion.

The second question was to find out what direction does the water drain out of a sink in Australia? Why? And how we find out the answer?

According to a YouTube video that water in Australia drain counter clockwise but I don’t see this as a truthful sources because this video could be any other part of the planet. By reading more I few sources that talk about “corioles forces”. It seems that the water drains differently according to the hemisphere due to the rotation of the earth. “on a rotating Earth the air keeps getting deflected away from the center which causes the low pressure system to spin counter-clockwise in the northern hemisphere (depicted below in the graphic) and clockwise in the southern hemisphere. In a high-pressure system, air flows out from the center. In the northern hemisphere, the deflection is to the right, which causes the system to spin clockwise. In the southern hemisphere, the deflection is to the left which is why a high pressure system spins counter-clockwise.” (www.wheatherimagery.com) As I read in the Internet the rotation of the earth and the corioles forces has a lot to do with the rotation of the drain water. If Australia is in the Southern Hemisphere the water drain in the counter-clockwise but this is the same answer that I have for the Northern Hemisphere in United States.

I think science gives us the opportunity to learn and we can all discover sciences in different ways. Thru this exercise I find out in the Internet that the water is supposed to drain differently depending in the country and hemisphere decide the direction of the water to drain but according to my experience I did not see the water drain clockwise in the northern hemisphere as supposed to be according the internet information. 

hi everybody,

my name is Mehmet and I am from Turkey too. Also I have been working for the telecommunications authority for seven years as my colleagues Erdoğan and Alper. My major is financial economics in BU. Although the whole degree takes two years to complete, we had one year to finish. Thanks to God, this the last course:) I am married with a child that's way I am posting so late.

About the water in the sink, when I was a child, there was a guy a famous pop singer in 90s went to equator and did the same experiment with a bucket water and a straw. He showed the direction of the straw spinning in the water in different directions in different hemispheres. Where can I know that we did the same experiment 20 years later in Boston. When I google it, there is not a consensus whether the water turns randomly or from Coriolis effect. Here is the proof : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17zVP7R0iLY&feature=related

Introduction and experiences from the first day.

Hi my name is Erdogan Olcay. I am from Turkey. This is hopefully my last course for master’s degree before I return to my job in Turkish Telecommunications Authority. The only thing I am experienced in about sea life is swimming. I do not know much about harbors or the sea creatures. So I think this course will be interesting and useful to learn about these.

The first day of the class was a little strange for me. First I was late, and found myself taking a quiz, in front of the blackboard where I have not been since my high school years. Then we were asked to go to the ladies’ restroom to observe the direction of water in the sink. It is the craziest thing that I was asked to do in all my educational life.  

I and my three team mates observed that the water drained clockwise although I was in the “counter clockwise photo” taken before we went to the restroom. It was a quick guess because I had no idea about this. But after reading the other posts and a quick research I learned about the “Coriolis Effect”.

There are claims that the water drains clockwise in northern hemisphere and counter-clockwise in Southern hemisphere because of the Coriolis force. However some academics state that Coriolis force is not strong enough to effect the direction of the water in a sink. The surface conditions and the shape of the holes can be more effective factors in the direction of the water [1].

[1] Collins, G.P. (2009). Coriolis effect. Scientific American, 301(3), 76. Retrieved from Boston University Libraries Database.

introduction and sink experiment

hi, my name is Alper, i am from Turkey and i have been working for telecommunication authority in Turkey since 2006. i am studying financial economics at BU and this is my last semester. at least i hope so.
supposedly, it is the coriolis effect that determines the direction of water draining from a sink, but when i google it, it is stated that it was only a myth, as most of my classmates explained. the water may drain in either clockwise or counterclockwise and it depends only on the very first move that affects the water in the sink. the way you remove your hand from the sink, maybe the temperature in the room and some other micro factors affect the direction of water, not the coriolis effect which is a force related to ocean currents, airplanes, winds etc. so in the other semiphere,  i guess the logic will be the same.      

Pondering the Plumming

Hey everyone, it's Stacey here! I'm from Stamford, Connecticut and will be a senior in the fall. I'm majoring in photojournalism and minoring in Italian. I'm really excited to take this class since I hope to photograph for National Geographic someday.

My group had all previous  decided that the water would drain counterclockwise when we went into the ladies bathroom before we observed the actual water flow. After filling and draining the sink three times, we all unanimously agreed that our hypothesis was correct, meaning that water would drain clockwise Down Under. I remember learning that this had something to do with the rotation of the Earth when I was younger and it has always remained hidden in the recesses of my mind, although I have never known the exact underlying facts of this phenomenon.

After doing some preliminary research on Wikipedia, I came across the term "the Coriolis Force," which is the effect of the earth's rotational speed on objects moving over its surface. The closer you get to the equator, the faster the earth is moving so things appear to move in different directions, according to About.com. (http://geography.about.com/od/physicalgeography/a/coriolis.htm) In relation to water drainage, however, the effects of the Coriolis Effect are not always as clear as people would like to think. The Coriolis Effect has little to no impact on everyday, common water drainage. This does not mean that it has no effect, however. Conditions have to be very specific for the effect to come into play. According to "The Great Plughole Debate" by David Adam of The Guardian, "as long as the water was allowed to stand for at least 18 hours, it always went down the plughole in a clockwise direction" in a series of experiments conducted by the University of Sydney. (http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2003/nov/13/research.science) So water does flow clockwise own a drain in Australia and counterclockwise in the northern hemisphere...just not all the time.

My name is Ajay and I've been spending the last few years studying the flora in the city of Boston.  After seeing this class, I thought it'd be interesting to continue on to the shoreline and dip into the sea.  I have previously camped on Bumpkin Island, one of the many islands in the harbor, which was my first camping experience.  Sitting with friends by a campfire after dark, the lights of the city in the distance, and watching a pack of coyotes make their way along the beach made for a memorable experience.

My group observed the water in the sink drain counter-clockwise.  We attempted it a second time to make sure but the water simply swished back and forth as if the sink were using mouthwash.

I had guessed that the water would drain clockwise, not from any previous experience, but because it seemed appropriate, unlike lands down under, where it was understandable that things would move the wrong way.  I wasn't entirely surprised to observe the opposite.  I couldn't think of a mechanism whereby water would be forced to move in only one direction; a chaotic start could lead to many different outcomes.

I found such a mechanism exists! -- the Coriolis force -- but, according to the Library of Congress website, it is not strong enough to affect the water in a sink.  So, water in Australian sinks must go in every which direction.

Brenda Rivera- Intro & drain response.

Hello All, my name is Brenda. I am a Psychology major here at BU and this is, like the professor said: a painless way to satisfy the Science Requirement. I have been looking forward to this class because I am finally able to see Boston Harbor. Today is 29 years that I have been in Boston from Puerto Rico. I love MA and look forward to learning more about it. Tonight's excercise my team agreed the water drained clockwise. We also did a quick research on the web and all watched a video of an example of a draining sink with a single match. As the water drained the match moved clockwise. I will post the results of what direction the sinks drain in Australia as I learn about it some more. Our team mate expressed her prior knowledge of it being counterclockwise because of the southern hemisphere. I found a website That is called Sciencegeekgirl where it states the answer to the question is yes and no. "The myth goes that if you flush a toilet in Australia the water swirls down the drain the opposite way than in the northern hemisphere, due the Coriolis effect" The fact that it says it's a myth doesn't give me much certainty. I will have to do more research to be sure.

Hi, my name is Chantell Alford. I am originally from Connecticut and I am student at Boston University. I do not know much about harbors which is why I am interested in this class.

Today, in a group of three, we were given an assignment to take a trip to the women's restroom, plug the drain of a sink in the bathroom, run water until a significant amount has filled the sink, release the hand from the water and observe and come to a conclusion whether the water spun down the drain clockwise or counterclockwise. As a group, we experimented twice and agreed the water had gone down counterclockwise both times.

Additionally, we were assigned to research the direction water drains in Australia. Many sites have published water spins differently depending on the hemisphere in which one lives - the Coriolis Effect. The Coriolis Effect "causes an apparent deflection of moving objects to the right in the Northern Hemisphere; to the left in the Southern Hemisphere; an no apparent deflection on the equator" (Hiskey, 2010). Therefore the idea that water spins down a drain clockwise or counterclockwise isn't necessarily a right or wrong distinction, but rather the perception the individual has. So there is no one, correct direction in which the water spins in Australia, but rather how the individual sees it.

Hiskey, Daven. (2010, July 23). What hemisphere you are in does not affect the way water spins down your drain. Today I Found Out retrieved from http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2010/07/what-hemisphere-you-are-in-does-not-affect-the-way-water-spins-down-your-drain/

Hey there harbor enthusiasts. My name is Shaun Bossio and I have lived in the Boston area my whole life. Despite that, I have somehow gone that entire time without a trip to any of the harbor islands. Pretty sad, t'is true. Yes, I said "t'is". I am taking this class to satisfy a science requirement and since the extent of my scientific development can be categorized as limited to what I learned on the Discovery Channel, my options were few. Honesty, right? That being said, I have heard some great things about this class and I am looking forward to exploring a part of my home that has somehow eluded me for so long. Plus, I really kind of enjoy it when Prof. Berman embarrasses the folks that come in late. I think we are going to get along just fine.

As for the solution to today's field trip, I have to admit I was 99.9% sure that the answer was clockwise (North America) and counter-clockwise (Australia). How was I so sure? I clearly remember the episode of the Simpsons (Bart v. Australia) in which that very problem is discussed. When we conducted our group experiment today, I thought our results confirmed just that. The water drained out of the sink in a clockwise manner. Now, I just had to prove why my theory was correct. I did a little research online and read up on the Coriolis effect and yes, starting on Wikipedia (it's just so damn handy). I was a little surprised to read that though it can affect the direction water drains, it does not have any effect on toilets, bathtubs, sinks and presumably, beer kegs, in any hemisphere. My first thought was, "No, that can't be right. Wikipedia must be wrong." After doing a little more searching though, I stumbled onto this page which is not exactly the most reputable of sources, but does provide a good explanation and helpful Q&A. A short time later though, I did manage to find an article on the Library of Congress page that corroborates the inability of the Coriolis effect to affect smaller bodies of water such as that in our sinks. Ok, ok, so the page is intended for a ten year old writing a report on how toilets flush. Whatever. It is still from the Library of Congress! Plus, I may or may not have spent the next hour looking up more Everyday Mysteries. I mean, who among us has never wondered why indeed a grapefruit is called a grapefruit? They're right, it looks nothing like a grape! Thank you Library of Congress.

In any event, it appears we were all wrong. Each and every one of us. I look forward to making a fool of myself again and again over the next 6 days. Damn you science (shaking fist), you win this round!

-Shaun Bossio

Response from First Day of Class

            My name is Liza Zipursky, I’m 24 years old, and I am currently a student at BU’s Metropolitan College, majoring in Psychology. This summer, in addition to taking classes, I am a research assistant at the Center For Anxiety and Related Disorders at BU. I was born and raised in Los Angeles, California but have been living in Boston for five years, and currently live in Jamaica Plain. I have had the great fortune on traveling around the world, and have also lived in Vermont, New York City, Paris, and Thailand. I love to socialize and also DJ on the side. I can’t wait to see what we will find in our exploration of the Boston Harbor!

            In our group observation today we looked at the direction in which the water rotated when draining in a sink in the women’s bathroom. We watched as the water drained and did not see in rotating in a particular direction until the very end where the water created a vortex and spun clockwise. All members in our group were in agreement that we observed the water draining in a clockwise direction.

            When I was about 11 years old I made a trip to Australia and remember my Dad telling me that the water spun counter clockwise because we were in a different hemisphere. So I assumed that the way water spins depended on the Hemisphere until I did some online research and found that what my dad had told me was actually a myth.

            First, I watched a youtube video, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBsYaudxjWg, that showed a man testing this theory. It showed water draining counter clockwise in Australia, a country in the Southern Hemisphere, but much to my surprise he tested the direction in which the water drained in Hong Kong, a city in the Northern Hemisphere and water drained counter clockwise there too!

            I then found this, “A popular misconception is that the Coriolis effect determines the direction in which bathtubs or toilets drain, and whether water always drains in one direction in the Northern Hemisphere, and in the other direction in the Southern Hemisphere. This myth is perpetuated by the Simpsons episode "Bart Vs. Australia." In reality, the Coriolis effect is a few orders of magnitude smaller than other random influences on drain direction, such as the geometry of the sink, toilet, or tub; whether it is flat or tilted; and the direction in which water was initially added to it. Note that toilets typically are designed to only flush in one rotation, by having the flush water enter at an angle. This is less of a puzzle once one remembers that the Earth rotates once per day but that a bathtub takes only minutes to drain. When the water is being drawn towards the drain, the radius with which it is spinning around it decreases, so its rate of rotation increases from the low background level to a noticeable spin in order to conserve its angular momentum (the same effect as ice skaters bringing their arms in to cause them to spin faster).” From the website http://www.funtrivia.com/askft/Question75645.html. Under this post there was a like to Wikipedia on the Coriolis Effect.

            I clicked in the link to Wikipedia and found the following under the section, “Draining in Bathtubs and Toilets”, In 1908, the Austrian physicist Otto Tumlirz described careful and effective experiments which demonstrated the effect of the rotation of the Earth on the outflow of water through a central aperture.[27] The subject was later popularized in a famous article in the journal Nature, which described an experiment in which all other forces to the system were removed by filling a 6-foot (1.8 m) tank with 300 US gallons (1,100 l) of water and allowing it to settle for 24 hours (to allow any movement due to filling the tank to die away), in a room where the temperature had stabilized. The drain plug was then very slowly removed, and tiny pieces of floating wood were used to observe rotation. During the first 12 to 15 minutes, no rotation was observed. Then, a vortex appeared and consistently began to rotate in a counter-clockwise direction (the experiment was performed in Boston, Massachusetts, in the Northern hemisphere). This was repeated and the results averaged to make sure the effect was real. The report noted that the vortex rotated, "about 30,000 times faster than the effective rotation of the earth in 42° North (the experiment's location)". This shows that the small initial rotation due to the earth is amplified by gravitational draining and conservation of angular momentum to become a rapid vortex and may be observed under carefully controlled laboratory conditions.

In contrast to the above, water rotation in home bathrooms under normal circumstances is not related to the Coriolis effect or to the rotation of the earth, and no consistent difference in rotation direction between toilets in the northern and southern hemispheres can be observed. The formation of a vortex over the plug hole may be explained by the conservation of angular momentum: The radius of rotation decreases as water approaches the plug hole so the rate of rotation increases, for the same reason that an ice skater's rate of spin increases as they pulls their arms in. Any rotation around the plug hole that is initially present accelerates as water moves inward. Only if the water is so still that the effective rotation rate of the earth (once per day at the poles, once every 2 days at 30 degrees of latitude) is faster than that of the water relative to its container, and if externally applied torques (such as might be caused by flow over an uneven bottom surface) are small enough, the Coriolis effect may determine the direction of the vortex. Without such careful preparation, the Coriolis effect may be much smaller than various other influences on drain direction,[30] such as any residual rotation of the water[31] and the geometry of the container.[32] Despite this, the idea that toilets and bathtubs drain differently in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres has been popularized by several television programs, including The Simpsons episode "Bart vs. Australia" and The X-Files episode "Die Hand Die Verletzt".[33] Several science broadcasts and publications, including at least one college-level physics textbook, have also stated this.” This quote comes from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coriolis_effect#Draining_in_bathtubs_and_toilets. 

-Liza Zipursky

Toilet and sink

7/13/12
Hello, my name is Clark Brighton.  I am from Hanover, New Hampshire and I have always loved the water whether I am swimming, scuba diving, boating or just at the beach.  Science is something that I have always been intimidated by, mainly anything that has to do with numbers and equations. 
 I had no idea which way water goes down a toilet so I took a guess and was wrong.  I thought it was clockwise when it was actually counterclockwise.  Thinking about water being flushed in Australia I honestly do not see why it would be different from flushing in North America so for that I am going to say it will still flush counterclockwise.  Truthfully this is a mixture between common sense and 50/50 guessing. 

Hello Class,

My name is Amine Mohamed Yakine, it is really a pleasure to be in this fantastic class.
Mr. Berman thank you for the Crabs, I boiled them and made a California sauce that you recommended...delicious to say the least... You are the coolest Professor at B.U.

A few things about me, I will be a senior in the Fall studying Criminal Justice. I enjoy the small pleasure of life, food, family, reading (History, Diplomacy and literature), horseback, the beach in the summer, travels and hunting.

I think the water drains counterclockwise, my teammates did agree with this conclusion. In Austria and anywhere in this planet, I think the water drains the same way as it is subject to the same laws of gravity in this planet of ours.

See you all tomorrow,

Amine.

Hi! My name is Melissa Veiga, I am from Cape Verde islands, I am taking this class because I love the beach and I would like to explore more about it.

According to http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Which_way_does_water_go_down_drain_in_Australia, the water goes down in any direction depending on how the water was spinning at first. If the faucet which you use to fill a container is ever so slightly inclined to the left or to the right, this will give the water a spin that will last for at least a day. Coriolis effects - effects due to the rotation of the Earth - are usually quite secondary.

 

Today, my group and I went for a little trip to the lady's room to watch in what direction does the water drains down the sink. I put my hands above the drainer and let the water fill up the sink, after I removed my hands from above the drainer, we came to a conclusion that the water was spinning counter clock wise.

The Way My Toilet Drains....a folk song in the key of G

The Way My Toilet Drains...A Folk Song in the Key of G       by Kathryn Goldman

In Boston, the water circles round ( and around)
In Boston, the water circles down ( and around)
I saw it circle left to right
I still have no idea why
In Boston, the water circles round

In Australia, i think it does the same
Coriolis is the big name of the game
Although I can't be there right now
It still drains left to right somehow
Down Under, the water drains the same

In Boston, the water circles round ( and around)
Yes, in Boston, the water circles down ( and around)
I still don't know the reason why
It's gonna' keep me up all night
In boston, the water circles round


And on a more serious note....this is Kathryn Goldman.

It seems that the notion that water drains in the opposite direction in the Southern Hemisphere                 ( Australia, for instance)  from that of the Northern Hemisphere is a myth. Apparently what we are talking about is called the "Coriolis Effect." Wikipedia defines this as " a deflection of moving objects when they are viewed in a rotating reference frame. In a reference frame with clockwise rotation, the deflection is to the left of the motion of the object; in one with counter-clockwise rotation, the deflection is to the right." However, when applying this to drains and toilets, the Coriolis effect does not play a factor. Wiki.answer.com states that the Coriolis Effect is "only valid on a larger scale when, for instance talking about the direction of airflow into cyclones ( or hurricanes)- in the northern Hemisphere it is counter-clockwise and in the Southern Hemisphere it is clockwise."

One Class, One Day: From Snails to Whales - A taste of things to come!

They're Here: Giant African Land Snail's Invade Miami.

Promotional announcement for last year's traveling exhibition of giant pink snails.

As you know,  I am always interested in invasive species like tunicates, snakes, parrots, lizards, fish and of course snails. Though they can - and often do - have a devastating effect on the environment and the economy, they are often among the most interesting species to study in the field.

At Save the Harbor / Save the Bay, for example, we track the spread of the invasive Asian Shore Crab, and my undergraduate class in Earth Science at Boston University has been tracking a colony of invasive land snails on Lovells Island in the Boston Harbor Islands National Park for nearly 10 years.

When I am on vacation, I often spend my time looking for invasive species wherever I go. They often provide an important window into the health of the environment - and interesting insights into human behavior as well.

While visiting Miami during last year's cold snap - which killed thousands of invasive iguanas - I added the phrase "iguanas falling from trees" to my keywords at Google news. The search returned dozens of articles in the popular press over the course of the winter - which helped me keep abreast of the impacts of climate on these non-native lizards.

Here's a link to one of the many stories I found. Frozen Iguanas

At that time, I also added the keywords "giant snails in Miami" so that I could track the progress of the giant pink snail sculptures that invaded Miami beach last year as part of a traveling exhibition sponsored by Galleria Ca'D'Oro in Rome.

In November of this year (2011)  I was surprised to find that my keywords, which had been relatively quiet, returned a story about a totally different kind of giant snail which has invaded Miami Dade.

 

Earlier this year the Giant African Land Snail (GALS) was discovered in the Miami area. Though it is popular as a pet in Europe, it is banned in the US because it is a voracious pest that threatens both agriculture and human health.

So far it has spread to more than a dozen different locations in Miami, prompting an aggressive response by state and local officials who are quite right to be concerned about its impact on the environment, agriculture and human health.

Later today I will be accompanying a team from the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services as they assess a newly discovered "core" infestation just south of Miami. I am certain that it will be interesting. I'll keep you informed about what I discover.

In the meantime, you can find out more at this link to the Department's great GALS site.

Giant African and Snails

Kathy

My Spectacle Island Visit

I went out to Spectacle Island last week. I intended to be on the island for low tide but then realized that low tide occurred at 6:03 am and 6:23 pm, which wasn’t going to work with the ferry schedule. So instead I caught the first ferry out and arrived at South Beach around 10:00. It was a sunny day and the temperature was around 85 degrees so I didn’t mind going in the water in search of treasures.

As we approached the South Beach area there was a picnic table that was covered with all the finds of previous visitors. But for the moment I ignored the table and headed straight for the water knowing that the tide would be coming in. My plan was to first spend time just collecting samples. Then there was a ranger lead walk that talk about some of the history of the island. I thought this might give me some insight about my samples. The walk was followed by a trip to the visitor’s center and finally I would use the new information to decide which samples were potentially the most interesting and photograph them before returning my collection to South Beach.

The ranger took us up the north drumlin where the view was amazing. On the way back down we saw a wild turkey. The ranger said they couldn’t figure out how the turkey got there. There are deer and raccoons on the island, but she said they are able to swim to the island. The turkey on the other hand can “flutter” short distance but they’re not really capable of flight, so it’s a mystery.

I learned that from 1857 -1910 the Ward’s candle making plant and horse-rendering operation converted 2000 dead horses a year into hides, glue, hair, and oil. Thirty men were employed on the island and 13 families lived there. But by 1910 the automobile was becoming increasingly popular in the Boston area, reducing the need for horses. As a result the operation was closed.

Then from 1912-1935, Coleman’s, a grease reclamation plant ,processed Boston’s garbage. When the plant closed in 1935 the island continued to be used as a garbage dump until 1959. One gentleman on the walk remarked that he clearly remembers garbage coming out to the islands after 1959 and the ranger explained that the city of Boston had stopped sending garbage out to the island in a systemic way in 1959, but there was some occasional dumping on the island after that date.

In the visitor’s center I looked at the displays and reviewed the collection of items that were left on the information desk. These were more of the treasures from South Beach.

Now it was time to get to work on the samples I had collected. I thought about the samples I had seen in the water, on the sand, and on the picnic table. While there were plenty of things that could just be considered random pieces of trash, there also seem to be things that fit into neat categories. The number of individual items in this category seems too high for their appearance to just be random. Some of the categories I recognized right away were dishware, sea glass, construction/ demolition materials and shoe heals and soles. This in my mind indicates that for some of these categories, the pieces probably all came to the island in either a single or multiple batches.

The first item I was interested in was a small piece that I found in the water of what appeared to be a broken dish. It had a blue design on it and a distinctive border. After a minute I realized that I had seen a slightly larger piece with this same border on the picnic table. When I compared the 2, I had a match. The 2 pieces could have been from the same piece or from 2 different pieces from the same set. I thought about it a little more and realized that I had also seen this pattern on one of the pieces on the information desk back at the visitor’s center. When I went back to look at it, the pattern did indeed match but this piece was probably a serving bowl whereas the other 2 pieces were most likely plates. But they were clearly from the same set. When I turned the serving bowl over it said Buffalo China.

I searched the Internet and found Buffalo China was the name of the company that manufactured it. They have been making dishware since the early 1900’s and were bought by Oneida in 1983. Over the years they have sold their dishware mostly to commercial entities such as restaurants, hotels and the military. For a period of time they also made pottery and commemorative plates. I went searching further and found the dishes for sale on eBay. The name of the pattern is Blue Willow.

The Willow pattern can be found in a variety of colors but blue is the most common. The Blue Willow pattern has been used by several companies and came to this country from England where its use dates back to the late 1700s. The facts get a little less certain at this point. It is believed that the design was originally from China and then brought to England. It appears that in England more than one person/company started using the pattern. With this last fact came the realization that the 2 pieces I found may not have been Buffalo China. It could have been from another company that used the Blue Willow pattern. Only the bowl from the Visitor’s Center was actually marked Buffalo China.

In my blog post above is a picture of the small piece I found in the water next to the piece from the picnic table, followed by a picture of the serving bowl from the visitor’s center and finally an image of the dish for sale on ebay.

The next item in my collection appeared to be a teacup; there were no markings on it. The pattern had a blue border with tulips and seems like the kind of thing that could have been in use anywhere from the 1960s to the 1990s.

Another item in my collection appeared to be a teacup. On the bottom it was marked “Ideal CARR China Co”. CARR China also sold its wares to commercial entities such as restaurants, hotels, hospitals, clubs and the military. The company began sometime between 1916 and 1923 in West Virginia and was closed in 1952. Although the pottery industry in the US had been declining due to competition from Japan and other low wage earning countries, it’s rumored that Wheeler Bachman, the then owner of the plant, closed the business in a fit of rage when he learned that the plant employees were meeting to discuss the possibility of organizing a union.

Interestingly the Carr China Co. also sold a Blue Willow pattern. In addition to their generic dishes, in my research I found a number of pieces that were personalize by putting the name or logo of the business on them such as the Triangle Diner, Henry Ford Hospital, White Tower restaurant and Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

In the blog above is a picture of the piece I found. It does not show the design of the Ideal pattern, so I went looking on the Internet. I found a picture of a plate and sugar bowl with the Ideal pattern but couldn’t find a teacup.

My final piece of dishware appears to be part of a white teacup with a green strip. There was no company name on this but while looking into the Buffalo China I saw some very similar patterns to this, but no exact match. It reminded me of the kind of dishes one would have seen in a coffee shop back in the 1960s. But then when looking into Carr China I found a plate on ebay that looks like it could be part of the same set.

So what I have so far is 4 pieces of, dishware, two of which came from companies that sold dishware commercially, one piece that looks like something that could have been used commercially, and one piece that I’m unsure about. My first thought was maybe a restaurant or some other entity had just thrown them out after buying a new set of dishes and they some how worked their way from the landfill to the water. But then I realized if a restaurant was getting new dishes and throwing out the old, they would have had disposed of many pieces all with the same pattern. What I saw on the beach was many pieces all with different patterns. I suppose it’s possible that enough dishes had collected over the years in the landfill that there are now a variety of patterns and only a few pieces from each pattern escape. I guess it’s also possible that the dishes didn’t all come to the island as a batch as I had thought (BE WILLING TO CHANGE YOUR THEORY) but rather each week a few pieces of dishware in the various Boston restaurants got broken by a clumsy waiter. Unlike some kinds of trash, the dishware isn’t too likely to degrade so I think it’s possible that the percent of dishes in comparison to other trash increases over the years and that it will continue to be around for many years. Although the pieces on the beach will probably continue to be broken into smaller and smaller pieces with the tides going in and out.

Moving away from the dishes to another category of trash, I selected a piece from what I’m calling the random trash collection. Although I found this plastic cigar holder in the water, the paper label was in good shape and easy to read, so I don’t think it had been there very long. The label read “Backwoods, Sweet Aromatic, All Natural Tobacco ” The bar code was 716 10 30151. I thought it possible that someone on one of the many boats that were on the water that day smoked a cigar and dropped the tube off the side of the boat deliberately.

My final artifact came from the sea glass collection. I learned from my reading of the Sea glass Journal (yes, there is such a thing, www.seaglassjournal.com/vacations/spectacleisland/spectacleisland.htm) that “Sea glass found on the island may not be as conditioned as shards found on an ocean coastline since the currents and surf within Boston Harbor may not be as active. But this offers an unusual opportunity for the sea glass collector. Lots of the glass, while having smooth edges, will have retained a lot of its original shape and surface texture which leads to easier identification of their origins.”

The piece of glass I examined appeared to be the bottom of a clear bottle. On it was written the word Sheaffer’s.The Sheaffer Company was founded in 1912 and produced fountain pens. The company continues to operate today selling fine quality writing instruments. I suspect this bottle was probably from a bottle of ink that they sold. According to the Sheaffer website, Sheaffer pens were used to sign the Japanese peace treaty and the United Nations Charter. Could this piece of glass have been at these major historical events? Probably not, but it’s fun to think about it.

My trip to Spectacle Island made for a great day. Seeing all the trash reminds me that just because we throw something away doesn’t means it ceases to exist. It will need to go somewhere, so we need to keep in mind the 3-Rs, Reduce, Re-use, recycle. If any of you gets the chance I’d highly recommend visiting the island.

Kathy

My Final Thoughts

This class has been a wonderful experience for me. All of the field trips were great but I think my favorite was exploring the biodiversity at the docks. I was amazed at how many creatures could be found in each handful we pulled off the docks. Until then I never realized how many different types of barnacles there were or knew that skeleton shrimp even existed. I also was amazed at how good the fish and chips were at the Barking Crab after our day on the docks.

Other highlights for me were the grove snails on Lovell’s Island and I really enjoyed my adventure on Spectacle Island. I must admit when Bruce had us read the Tragedy of the Commons I couldn’t understand what the connection was to our class at first, but once we talked about the over fishing of striped bass it all became clear.

The whole experience was enhanced by the great weather, my great classmates and a great teacher. I want to thank Bruce for both for his passion for sharing his knowledge with us and the work he has done over the years with Save the Harbor, Save the Bay to protect this great resource. I suspect we’ll all pay more attention every time we see a sign over a storm drain that says, “No Dumping – This drains to the Boston Harbor”.