Coriolis effect Handedness Unhandy Commentary

Gaspard-Gustave de Coriolis atmospheric_sciences

Coriolis effect

• The earth moves, the atmosphere has mass,
• it would all appear as Newton described
• except for the fact that everything is rotating.
• Whirl around with a ball at the end of a string
• and it will seem to pull away from you.
• This is called the centrifugal effect, which isn’t
• really a force, but the effect of subtracting
• the direction of spin from the ball’s inertial trajectory.
• Similarly, the Coriolis effect
• makes an object moving on a straight path
• but in a rotating field of reference
• appear to swerve against the direction of the spin.
• *
• The earth is a spinning sphere
• so winds and currents appear to veer.

Handedness

• If you stand on the north pole,
• the earth turns counterclockwise;
• if you stand on the south pole,
• it turns clockwise.
• A great circle between points
• at the same latitude above the equator
• arches to the north;
• but below the equator
• arches to the south.
• The Coriolis effect
• pulls wind and currents
• to the right when north of the equator
• and to the left when south.

Unhandy

• If I don’t think carefully first,
• left and right come out at random, it seems,
• even though I know which direction to turn.
• But thinking isn’t easy,
• nor is it easy to remember to think.
• I often need to think first about needing to.