The equator

I was listening to my favourite podcast, www.timesonline.co.uk/thebugle and I have to take exception to something they said. It was (preposterously) claimed that water DOESN'T go down the plughole the other way in the southern hemisphere from the way it does in the northern hemisphere. But this is very much the case - and I know because I've seen it many a time myself.

It's all to do with the coriolis forces created by the rotation of the earth combined. I could get all sciency, but I'd probably get it wrong, so I'll leave it there.

But I visited a hydroelectric power station once in Chile and the station manager told me they'd had special turbines built that turned the other way from ones in the northern hemisphere, to capture the ever-so-slight improvement in efficiency from having the water spin through the turbine the way it "ought" to in Chile. They wouldn't have bothered if there weren't some discernible difference.