Week 3

Welcome to my first official Physical Science post. This is my third week in Physical Science and we have spent the week learning about (Chapter 4) Gravity, Projectiles, and Satellites; (Chapter 5) Fluid Mechanics; and (Chapter 6) Temperature Heat and Thermodynamics.

Without further ado, I present to you your first weekly physical science lesson. An element that is a part of my course is Thought Conferences where we are expected to answer at least three Thought Questions. One of the questions that we were able to choose to answer was: Why do shower curtains always seem to cling to the person showering? The answer to this question was one that I have always wondered about. Before we moved into a house that had shower doors, we had shower curtains. I remember spending a great portion of my time in the shower trying to keep the shower curtain off of me. I would get so annoyed with the shower curtain because it seemed like no matter where I moved the curtain just kept coming back for me and sticking to me. Now that I have shower doors, I no longer have this problem. Nevertheless, I am sure that some of you do and would like to know why.

The answer to "why the shower curtain always seems to stick to the person showering" was found in Chapter 5 and was explained by a Swiss scientist, Daniel Bernoulli. Bernoulli was rather fascinated in fluid flow in pipes and with his studies he discovered Bernoulli's principle. Bernoulli's principle states that: Where the speed of a fluid increases, its internal pressure in the fluid decreases.

Well what does that mean and how is that relevant in answering why the shower curtain sticks to you? There is pressure everywhere around us caused by the air, this pressure is called atmospheric pressure. We do not feel this pressure because our body exerts the same amount of pressure back, so for the most part we are unaware that the atmospheric pressure exists. There is also pressure in fluids, which is dependent on the speed of the fluid. Fluids that are moving fast exert a low pressure and fluids that are moving slow exert a high pressure. In other words, if a fluid is moving fast it does not take much pressure to keep a continuous flow; if a fluid is moving slow than it takes more pressure to keep a continuous flow.

When you shower, there is a change in pressure occurs. There is fluid pressure in the shower caused by the running water and atmospheric pressure outside of the shower stall caused by air. Most people run their shower on full blast, so you have water running at a high speed. As mentioned, fluids with a high speed exert a low pressure, so the pressure in the shower stall is lower than the pressure outside of the shower stall. As a result of the pressure outside of the shower stall being greater than the pressure in the shower, the shower curtain is pushed in. When you add a wet body to a shower curtain being pushed in, you get shower curtains sticking to your body.

So now you are aware of why your shower curtain keeps sticking to you when you are in the shower. A solution to how you can keep the shower from sticking to you is to not run your shower as high. If you run the water lower than you usually would, the fluid pressure would be greater and more equal to the pressure outside of the shower stall. If the pressure in the shower stall and the pressure outside of the shower stall are balanced, then the shower curtain will not be pushed in and stick to you.