Equatorial Ramblings
Well following on from my post a couple of weeks ago I took a pretty big plunge and applied for a conservation project, so I can somewhat nervously announce that come October I'll be travelling to Uganda to spend 2 months assisting the Ugandan Wildlife Authority with predator conservation in a national park.
I decided I was going to apply well over a week ago but spent the time finding excuses why I would leave it untill tomorrow, eventually on Friday I filled out the online form (for the second time having not sent it the first) and then sat for 10-15 minutes with the cursor over the send button trying to pluck up the courage. Eventually I decided I couldn't do it, I had no reason why I shouldn't put in my application but instead I'd do it tomorrow. Just as I moved my mouse towards the big cross in the corner of the window I had a fleeting feeling of confidence and found the cursor move very quickly back towards the 'send' button...more worringly I clicked it. Before I knew it I was staring at the confirmation screen saying someone would be in touch shortly. I walked round and round the house for 10 minutes in shocked kinda fashion trying to get my head round what I'd just let myself in for. Finally spoke to them on the phone this morning and confirmed stuff and most importantly they said my application was accepted. Yay!
Broke the news it was going ahead to my mum this afternoon and she started to get worried about absolutely everything. I scared myself yesterday by searching BBC News for Uganda.
Conversation soon moved from Idi Amin to the fact the equator ran through Uganda and how water would swirl the other way in different hemispheres and go straight down if I stood on the equator. I mean everybody knows that? Yeh? Well I found out it's absolute rubbish! The Coriolis Force exists but compared to all the other forces in play it's pretty negligable, the direction of rotation if determined by how the sink fills up or how you move your hands about the water. You set up rotations in the water by moving your hands in it then when the plug is pulled that results in the vortex down the plug. What more I made water drain out of my kitchen sink in both directions just by changing how the tap filled it up.
I decided I was going to apply well over a week ago but spent the time finding excuses why I would leave it untill tomorrow, eventually on Friday I filled out the online form (for the second time having not sent it the first) and then sat for 10-15 minutes with the cursor over the send button trying to pluck up the courage. Eventually I decided I couldn't do it, I had no reason why I shouldn't put in my application but instead I'd do it tomorrow. Just as I moved my mouse towards the big cross in the corner of the window I had a fleeting feeling of confidence and found the cursor move very quickly back towards the 'send' button...more worringly I clicked it. Before I knew it I was staring at the confirmation screen saying someone would be in touch shortly. I walked round and round the house for 10 minutes in shocked kinda fashion trying to get my head round what I'd just let myself in for. Finally spoke to them on the phone this morning and confirmed stuff and most importantly they said my application was accepted. Yay!
Broke the news it was going ahead to my mum this afternoon and she started to get worried about absolutely everything. I scared myself yesterday by searching BBC News for Uganda.
Conversation soon moved from Idi Amin to the fact the equator ran through Uganda and how water would swirl the other way in different hemispheres and go straight down if I stood on the equator. I mean everybody knows that? Yeh? Well I found out it's absolute rubbish! The Coriolis Force exists but compared to all the other forces in play it's pretty negligable, the direction of rotation if determined by how the sink fills up or how you move your hands about the water. You set up rotations in the water by moving your hands in it then when the plug is pulled that results in the vortex down the plug. What more I made water drain out of my kitchen sink in both directions just by changing how the tap filled it up.
posted by Quack at
6:37 PM
1 Comments:
Ooh, really? I shall try getting the water to go down the drain in different directions (now there's an alliterated sentence if ever I wrote one). Enjoy Uganda...
By
Naomi J., at 12:49 PM, April 12, 2006
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