Hello all!  I just got one of those incredible "hunches" that all
tramway/streetcar drivers get at times.  The subject of carousel
vs. merry-go-round rotational direction seems to be wrought with
controversy.

The same thing seems to apply to whirlpools.  In a "popular science
book" I found an illustration of a northern hemisphere whirlpool
(rotating anti-clockwise, I think) and a southern hemisphere (rotating
clockwise), but in any case rotating in the opposite direction).
But is this really true?

Best regards
Christofer Noering
Stockholm

 [ Satellite images of weather systems offer proof of the statement.
 [ A cyclone is a violent system, often of vast extent, characterized
 [ by high winds rotating about a calm center of low atmospheric
 [ pressure.  A typhoon (the word originates from both Arabic and
 [ Cantonese) is a tropical cyclone whirling in the western Pacific
 [ or Indian oceans; a hurricane is the same storm but in the Atlantic
 [ or Caribbean.  When the vertical motion is more significant than
 [ the horizontal motion, the storm is called a tornado or waterspout.
 [ (Ref. Merriam's Dictionary, 1927.)  -- Robbie