Science a GoGo's Home Page Forums General Discussion General Science Discussion Forum The Mystery of the Shower Curtain - Why does the shower curtain wrap around your legs

G'day all,

This was a thread in the not quite science section but I think it involves hard science and even though it isn't as earth shattering as why bumble bees fly, it still has a scientific interest.

Samwick raises a really interesting point. You can find it at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Shower-curtain_effect

I can't experiment on this myself. I can't use a shower by myself and we don't have a curtain but I'm sure all shower curtains have not been replaced by now and the effect really can be quite annoying, especially, as I recall in hotel rooms. It seems to me, from personal observation, that the size of the room makes a big difference. The whole curtain will wrap around you if the bathroom is small enough such as a cheap hotel. It also seems to have a much stronger attraction to naked females than to men .

Surely an observational experiment can easily be devised to test Sam's hypothesis. It should be interesting. And I volunteer to view the video if he wishes to test the difference between the female and male form. Well at least the female trials. Maybe the experiment could see if more than one female form creates an even bigger effect. OK blatantly sexist but, hey, I'm human, and suffering from a spinal injury, can really do nothing except dream.


Regards


Richard

Oh my gosh! i am sooo sorry that you are hurt! this was great!

Y'know, this is not just a funny story; there's an actual experiment that anyone can try. Should only take a couple of minutes....
~Sam

G'day all,

Sorry Sam, didn't mean to make light of the subject but it just sort of popped out. While it is not an earth shattering field, it is certainly real science and should be of interest to many.

Certainly I'd be interested to know why it does it and whether my observation that smaller rooms seem to make the effect more pronounced. Maybe my memory is faulty. It was one of life's little annoyances. And I'm a big fan of looking at seemingly minor matters to establish the often no so minor science behind it. Grew up watching shows like Professor Julius Sumner Miller and his kitchen experiments and his "Why is it so?" A great introduction into science. Professer Miller was famous only on Australian TV but I'm sure there were similar shows in other parts of the world.


Regards


Richard

Not at all Richard, I liked your musings. My comment was directed, hypothetically, at those who also might enjoy your take on things, but not follow up -maybe thinking it was too hard or complex. I suppose wading thru my rantings on the wikipedia 'talk' page might be asking a bit much, but the basic testing of whether hot showers suck and cold showers blow or suck -and by how much, shouldn't take too much time. Maybe a thread entitled Suck or Blow would attract more attention....LOL
~~Sam

My main interest with this question is that this has become accepted dogma just based on one scientific paper. I get the feeling that you understand my objections to deciding an issue based on just one paper; especially one that only examines one side of the issue.
~Sam

A cold shower does not produce this effect to anywhere near the same extent. A hot shower heats the air that ends up rising with the steam. The cold air near the floor fills the void by pushing the shower curtain in. Counteracting that force by making the water spray against the curtain can help. Magnets in the curtain can help somewhat too. I know it is hot water because while the effect is happening, I can counteract it every time by reducing the heat of the water. Likewise, increasing the flow rate of the hot water increases the movement of the shower curtain again.

Thanks John, that's what I was hoping to hear. For my shower cold water even makes the curtain move outward pressing it up against the lip (maybe it's more noticable in a shower "stall" like I have). So far, I've not heard anyone speak to outward movement like that, but I've got a very small bathroom too. As Richard conjectured, bouyancy effects may be more pronounced the smaller the room. That'd explain why I noticed a bigger difference with the door closed too. Thanks again....
~Sam

Don't know why I didn't think... I've got an upstairs bathroom (full size w/ tub and curtain). So it definitely supports the buoyancy side of things. With the bigger room the cold effect seemed about neutral, but I taped the sides of the curtain shut. That led to a slight outward billowing. With hot water I got about a 4 inch deflection inward of the bottom of the curtain and when I opened the door, it went up to about 6 inches. I noticed just moving around in the bathroom and opening/closing the door caused disturbances in the curtain too. Luke, I feel a disturbance in the bathroom.
~Sam