River Police

[Jaxilon]

Hehe, total hi-jack but there's an interesting conversation: is centrifugal force a fictitious force? Arguments abound and I was taught in my physics class that it was Centripetal force that folks should be referring to. In this case I guess it would be the centripetal force of the earth's gravity keeping the water on the planet while it spins instead of allowing it to just fly straight out into space? (actually there is probably the additional force of the earth going around the sun as well but now we are getting even more complex.) I wouldn't be surprised if I'm saying it all wrong either. After all, I'm older, not a physicist, and it's been years since I've tried to explain anything along these lines. I do know that if you go into an older Physics book you won't find centrifugal force in there. I think the newer ones have it so maybe the definition has changed? I dunno.

Anyway, this should probably be in another thread but I know we have at least one real physicist around here. Personally, I gave up arguing over this a long time ago but it always does make me smile when I see the word.

On a side note: I'm not busting bartmoss' chops for using it because it's often used to explain what seems to happen. I just get a kick out of it I guess. English is jacked up in a lot of ways due to it's being a living language and it does change over time. Eventually words become real if enough people use them, even if they started out being used incorrectly. (Ie, "Irregardless" which should just be "regardless" but whatever )

[Hai-Etlik]

They Earth's rotation just distends the geoid, any effect on rivers is balanced out by the land over which they flow being distended too. So they flow down, whatever that is in their location and it can just as easily be away from the equator as toward it.

[RobA]

Hehe, total hi-jack but there's an interesting conversation: is centrifugal force a fictitious force?

'Nuff said.

-Rob A>

[bartmoss]

'Nuff said.

-Rob A>

Awesome. Source?

[Hawksguard]

Awesome. Source?

Looks like xkcd.

[RobA]

Looks like xkcd.

ding ding! Hawksguard is correct!

I love XKCD.

-Rob A>

[Hungry Donner]

I'm jumping in a bit late but I can think of far more major rivers that flow north than south, although I don't think there is a bias in that direction either. Most of the largest rivers in Siberia flow North (the Lena, the Ob, the Yenise), as do the MacKenzie and Red rivers of North America, the Tocantins in South America, the Rhine, and the Nile flows North.

Not that there aren't plenty flowing South: Mississippi, Danube, Mekong, Rio de la Plata, Murray, Irrawaddy.

Some are tricky. The Ganges flows more east than south, does it count? If it does the Amazon flows more east than north. The Niger and Congo rivers both have lengthy north-flowing and south-flowing sections.

If you think about it in terms of ocean outflows most rivers going to the Arctic are heading north, most going into the Atlantic and Pacific are heading east or west, and most flowing into the Indian are flowing south. Funny enough most flowing into the Antarctic would also be flowing north if they weren't frozen.

[Juggernaut1981]

'Nuff said.
-Rob A>

At this point, I surrender and give Rob A the victory based on his XKCD awareness.

I do love XKCD when they're not jumping down the potty-mouth-road-to-victory. Check out their radiation chart.