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My shower curtain

Project86

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May 15, 2006
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Every morning I wake up and take a warm shower. The shower curtain always moves in my direction, crowding my elbow room. Common sense tells me it is haunted, and that I should sell it on ebay. Is there any other logical explanation? Mostly looking for a way to stop this crazy thing.
 
Cold water will do the same. It's from low air pressure in the eddies (in the air not the drop) trailing each drop as it falls.
 
David Schmidt won an IgNobel Prize for finding out why this is.

Earlier this year, the shower curtain mystery was tackled by David Schmidt, a mechanical engineering professor at the University of Massachusetts -- and for his work, he won the Ig Nobel in physics.

Schmidt said that the problem seems simpler than it is, and that most of the people who had attempted to answer the question -- apparently, this is an old problem -- had only provided theories. Schmidt, however, is an expert on sprays: shower sprays, fuel injector sprays, that kind of thing. A fluid is forced out of a small opening and thrust into the unpredictable world, and it's David Schmidt's job to somehow predict it.

"I realized that they were all weighing in with their opinions," he said, "and with these computer simulations I was doing" -- for his serious research -- "I had something at my fingertips that I could use to answer it."

After two weeks of number crunching using a spray simulator that only he has, Schmidt discovered the answer. It wasn't very stunning, but it was still a provable answer -- one which nobody else could produce.

"Basically, a vortex sets up," he said. "It's like a hurricane (of air) turned on its side, and in the center of that is low pressure, and that pulls in near the middle of the curtain. But because of the way tension works in a curtain you get the bottom moving in."
Click to expand...
 
Thanks to you all! I had actually wondered this very same thing myself, but never thought of asking.

cj x
 
Thanks for the replies. My old house had a glass shower door, which always required cleaning due to soap scum. Now I have a shower curtain, which tries to attack me. I can't win! At least I know why this happens though, thanks.
 
I was able to solve this problem by caulking the bottom of the shower curtain directly to the inside edge of my tub. Consequently, I am now trapped in the shower.
 
Use a heavier curtain... and one which has magnet on the sides and bottom... works great.

I also "seal" my curtain with water before starting the steam bath.

Works great.
 
This is the Bernoulli Effect, right?

And it's NOT actually responsible for most of the lift on an airplane's wing, right?
;)
 
I always thought it was the heated air rising and drawing in cooler air at floor level. I live in a house with the shower a long way from the water heater. I run the shower until the hot water starts coming through and the way I tell is that the curtain draws into the space.

If it's only the spray vortex, the phenomenon should also occur with cold water. Anyone out there take cold showers and use a curtain?
 
Project86 said:
Every morning I wake up and take a warm shower. The shower curtain always moves in my direction, crowding my elbow room. Common sense tells me it is haunted, and that I should sell it on ebay. Is there any other logical explanation? Mostly looking for a way to stop this crazy thing.
Click to expand...

The Bernoulli effect: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shower-curtain_effect

I think Phil Plait's shower curtain could make a hit on e-bay--

http://www.badastronomy.com/bad/misc/lenin.html

Can your shower curtain beat that?
 
Slimething said:
Articulett, he probably can. While he's taking a shower, his curtain exhibits a human in bas relief! That trumps a two-tone Lenin any day! :D
Click to expand...

I suppose so--though it might depend on the physique of the image in bas relief--

Certain states of arousal could affect the value I imagine, as well--

Lenins' face in 2D vs. some unknown guys sculpted in bas relief in a show curtain medium...

hmmmmmmmmmmmmm

It could be a toss up...
 
As a masochist, there is nothing I like better than an ice cold shower, first thing in the morning.

So I have a hot one.

.
 
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