A whirlpool is a body of rotating water produced by opposing currents or a current running into an obstacle. Small whirlpools form when a bath or a sink is draining. More powerful ones formed in seas or oceans may be called maelstroms. Vortex is the proper term for a whirlpool that has a downdraft.
The Gulf of Corryvreckan whirlpool in Scotland is the third-largest whirlpool in the world.
Saltstraumen
Corryvreckan whirlpool
Niagara Whirlpool
In fluid dynamics, a vortex is a region in a fluid in which the flow revolves around an axis line, which may be straight or curved. Vortices form in stirred fluids, and may be observed in smoke rings, whirlpools in the wake of a boat, and the winds surrounding a tropical cyclone, tornado or dust devil.
Vortex created by the passage of an aircraft wing, revealed by colored smoke
Vortices formed by milk when poured into a cup of coffee
A Kármán vortex street is demonstrated in this photo, as winds from the west blow onto clouds that have formed over the mountains in the desert. This phenomenon observed from ground level is extremely rare, as most cloud-related Kármán vortex street activity is viewed from space
The Crow instability of a jet aeroplane's contrail visually demonstrates the vortex created in the atmosphere (gas fluid medium) by the passage of the aircraft.
