The Royal Institution - 2018-03-28
For his last ever Mailbag, Jon tries to get to the bottom of the mystery of why shower curtains seem to want to grab you when you have a shower. Subscribe for regular science videos: http://bit.ly/RiSubscRibe We've all been there. You're trying to have a nice warm shower to wake you up in the morning but the moment is ruined by the feel of the clammy, wet fabric of the shower curtain clinging to your side. Why does this happen? There have been many suggestions on why this happens, including one that even won an Ig Nobel Prize. Is it the chimney effect or the Bernoulli's principle or something else entirely? Jon invites us to his bathroom to try to figure it all out. For more on Dr Schmidt's shower curtain research, see: https://web.archive.org/web/20020215213620/http://www.fluent.com/about/news/newsletters/01v10i2/a8.htm The Ri is on Twitter: http://twitter.com/ri_science and Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/royalinstitution and Tumblr: http://ri-science.tumblr.com/ Our editorial policy: http://www.rigb.org/home/editorial-policy Subscribe for the latest science videos: http://bit.ly/RiNewsletter
NOOOO dont leave ;( We WILL miss you big time. Wish you all the best for the future, maybe you will do this kind of stuff in Canada, too?
Thanks for your videos, sorry you're leaving. Best of luck to you in all your endeavours.
You’re wrong. It billows in and grabs your legs because shower curtains are a parasitic, alien life form.
LOL!
Thanks, man! I really enjoyed all your videos. You are very talented and engaging presenter.
Hope to see you one day with educational content on YouTube again.
And thanks to the team! You guys are making world a better place!
Excellent video, but someone ought to do proper experimental work on this phenomenon. Mere theoretical/simulated exercises aren't enough. We need actual science! :)
Totally agree!
I leave a 5 cm gap by one wall. That reduces the billowing quite a bit.
Also tried leaving a little gap by the floor, but that made it worse (and obviously also made the floor wet)
The cats at the RI didn't let you talk at the desk ? For shame . just pulling your leg . really cool video . thanks.
Thank you, I always assumed it was a combination of chimney and Bernoulli.
Safe travels chap.
Wet the curtain and it will stick to the side of the bath.
I usually do that myself, yes.
doing that since childhood
Thanks very much Jon... I've really enjoyed your videos. ♡
I always assumed it was because shower curtains were an alien life form.
Goodbye Jon :(
Interesting, but I alreay knew it. 28 mar 2018.
This was something people didn’t know? I mean, with a steamy shower, you can see the vortex... and, of course the curtain moves mostly at the bottom... yet pulls inward in the middle.
Great video
I had a shower curtain with weights at the bottom and suction cups along the sides. It was like showering in heaven!
Hey, that's a wonderful idea. I had thought of putting weights sometime but the suction cups will solve the problem. I'll have to think how to attach them without making any holes in the curtain.
I have a question for you at the RI
Why is it... that if I have chips cooked in the oven; the same brand, the same position in the oven, the same amount of chips, the same temperature settings and the same items in the oven; that the time it takes to cook varies so much (like 50% either way)? Why do my tea spoons and pens keep vanishing, is it the tea spoon and pen fairy that nicks them? Is there such a place as sock land? We always have a problem with missing socks, and it is always one sock and never two. Why is there always a tea spoon at the bottom of the washing up bowel?
Not one mention of electron orbitals...
Cold shower or hot shower, electrostatic differential?
I have a clothes-dryer sharing my bathroom. Whenever the clothes-dryer is on, the air in the bathroom is toasty, and if I shower in this situation, the curtains stay straight as a plumb. Weirder still, if the shower-temperature is turned to "cold", the curtains billow outwards. If someone then opens the bathroom door, cold air is let into the bathroom and the curtains immediately billow inwards into the shower, and I feel a chilly draft at my feet. I'm sticking with the chimney-effect as being the most dominant effect. Not saying that the vortices don't exist, but are not the dominant effect in my shower.
Hot air rising, cooler air from rest of room exerting pressure on curtain?
My shower curtain pulls billows inward MORE when I'm standing in it than when I'm not... 'Splain that one? ...considering these tests (for some reason) were done without anyone IN the shower...
Murphy's Law
I don't think a curved curtain rod would help, did you test it? I would imagine that helps to fold the curtain in half at the bottom. A stiffer curtain material in a wavy layout might help (like corrugated roof, but vertically).
Noticed this affect most in Hotels with power showers. Can make showering very difficult when the curtain tries to wrap itself around you.
It might be a stupid question but why does pressure decrease when there is an increase in velocity of the liquid? How does pressure manifests itself in liquids as opposed to gases? As we know for a gas trapped inside a closed container, faster molecular motion of the gas results in the increase of pressure.
Similar to the problem of fighting internal fires on aircraft from outside. If you are outside fighting an internal aircraft fire you will probably loose the whole aircraft. This was explained to me as entrained air, it can be seen happening when a stream of water is directed into an aircraft with an internal fire, smoke which would have vented is drawn back into the aircraft along with fresh oxygen. The only way to stop the entrainment is to get inside the aircraft and fight the fire.
I am first😤
I think some cool background music would have made the video much more interesting, got bored half way through lol
ash G. - 2018-03-28
I have wondered this question for so long.