Aaron DeWahl,

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The Coriolis Effect

• Presented by
• Aaron DeWahl,
• Frank McGuire,
• And your
• Student Activity Fee.

2
The Coriolis Effect

• What It Is

• How It Works

• What It Does

• Why We Care

• How it can be useful

Gustave-Gaspard Coriolis
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True Or False?
The Direction the water in your toilet bowl spins
is governed by the Coriolis Effect(CW in the
Northern Hemisphere, CCW in Southern).
False. While the Coriolis Effect determines the
spin in long-term vortices, such as hurricanes,
the vortex in the toilet is too small and short
lived for Coriolis to have any noticeable effect.

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What It Is
Coriolis effect is an inertial force described
by the 19th-century French engineer-mathematician
Gustave-Gaspard Coriolis in 18354.
States that in a rotating reference frame,
Newtonian mechanics still apply, but an inertial
force must be included in equations defining
motion.
This force, commonly referred to as the
Coriolis Force acts to the right of motion for
CCW rotation and to the left for CW rotation.
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How It Works

• ? angular velocity
• of the coordinate system
• v velocity of the object
• in the coordinate system
• the latitude of the
• object
• The subscripts x, y, z
• refer to the Cartesian
• coordinate system in 3-D
• f the Coriolis
• Parameter
• FC Coriolis force
• aC Coriolis acceleration
• m mass of object

aC -2 (? x v)
f 2 ? sin( ? )
FC (m aC) -2 (? x v) m
For an object on a sphere,
vx
v (
0
),
? ? (
),
vy
cos(?)
vz
sin(?)
aC 2 ? (
)
f (
)
vy sin(?) - vz cos(?) -vx sin(?) vx cos(?)
vy -vx
? For atmospheric or oceanic systems
Letters in bold denote vectors
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What It Does

• Changes the direction of projectiles

• Affects the spin of hurricanes and typhoons

• Creates Jet Stream and other major atmospheric
  phenomena

• Affects weather patterns

• Creates/affects oceanic currents

Video
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What It Does Continued
If the velocity is parallel to the rotation axis,
the Coriolis acceleration is zero
If the velocity is straight inward to the axis,
the acceleration is in the direction of local
rotation
If the velocity is in the direction of local
rotation, the acceleration is outward from the
axis
If the velocity is against the direction of local
rotation, the acceleration is inward to the axis
If the velocity is straight outward from the
axis, the acceleration is against the direction
of local rotation7
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Why We Care

• An understanding of the Coriolis Effect is
  nescessary for Air travel

• Ballistic missiles and and other projectiles are
  affected

• Tracking/estimating the path of tropical storms

• Nautical Navigation is dependent upon it

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How It Can Be Useful
Anti-Gravity in space stations
Quantum Mechanics
Interstellar Flight
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Works Cited

• 1http//ww2010.atmos.uiuc.edu/(Gh)/guides/mtr/fw
  /crls.rxml
• 2http//ww2010.atmos.uiuc.edu/(Gh)/guides/mtr/fw
  /gifs/coriolis.mov
• 3http//www.ems.psu.edu/fraser/Bad/BadCoriolis.
  html
• 4http//abyss.uoregon.edu/js/glossary/coriolis
  _effect.html
• 5//www.infoplease.com/ce6/weather/A0813558.html
  
• 6http//www.phy6.org/stargaze/Srotfram.htm
• 7http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coriolis_effect
• 8http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coriolis_effect
• Images
• http//apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap040915.html
• http//abyss.uoregon.edu/js/glossary/coriolis_ef
  fect.html
• http//www.wiley.com/college/strahler/0471480533/a
  nimations/ch07_animations/animation2.html
• http//www.mountwashington.org/education/center/ar
  cade/coriolis/Coriolis.jpeg
• http//oceanmotion.org/guides/cf_2/n_teacher_1_fil
  es/image018.png
• http//oceanmotion.org/guides/cf_2/n_teacher_1_fil
  es/image018.png