Air pressure and toilet water: who knew?!...

In most homes, the drain system has a vertical pipe which leads to an outlet on the roof. This pipe is called a "vent stack". It allows sewage gases to vent to the air outside your house rather than bubbling up through your sink and toilet, and allows air to pass through the pipes, which ensures that wastewater drains smoothly.

When the wind blows over your house, the air pressure changes because of the "Bernoulli effect". The Bernoulli effect says that pressure becomes lower when flow is faster. It's this effect that sucks loose objects out the car window when you open it while driving; it also creates the lift that allows an airplane to fly. As the wind blows over your house, the Bernoulli effect lowers the pressure at the top of the vent stack. This creates a slight suction throughout the plumbing system, which pulls against the water sitting in the trap in the toilet bowl. As the wind strengthens and weakens, it produces more or less suction, which causes the water in the bowl to slosh.

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The Blog was initiated as part of the inaugural "Sustainability Across the Curriculum" workshop, held at SMU on May 12, 2010. This is part of the Teacher Scholar programme for 2010-2011. If you have any posts, curriculum, ideas or inspired content that you would like to include, please send it to Dr. Cathy Conrad, the 2010-2011 Teaching Scholar, Associate Professor of the Department of Geography. I look forward to moderating this site and linking useful and relevant information. I hope you find it useful!



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