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The Coriolis Effect

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2016

Paul E. Wylie
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Extract

The coriolis effect is a change in the motion of a body passing over the surface of the Earth due to the motion of the Earth itself. The effect may be manifested either as a horizontal acceleration, or, in the absence of the acceleration, as a deflection of the course. The acceleration, which appears in controlled courses such as those of aircraft, usually appears and is significant as a deflection of the vertical. This acceleration appears whenever a body, such as an aircraft, is forced to follow a great circle path over the Earth. The deflection of the course of a moving body appears alternatively whenever the body moves freely in its inertial path above the surface of the moving Earth.

Information

Type
Technical Notes
Information
The Aeronautical Journal , Volume 57 , Issue 514 , October 1953 , pp. 655 - 658
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Aeronautical Society 1953

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References

Note on page 655 * See “The Paradox of the Foucault Pendulum” by Wylie, Paul E., Popular Astronomy, Vol. LVII, No. 4, April 1949.Google Scholar

Note on page 656 * Mathematically equipped readers will readily paraphrase the discussion in terms of the calculus.

Note on page 657 * The convention of representation of these angular velocities as vectors is that the vector is laid parallel to the axis of rotation with the arrow in the direction of advance of an analogous right-handed screw turning in the same sense as the angular velocity.

Note on page 657 † If the course is not due east or due west, then ar = (v2/R) tan ϕ sin C where C is the angle less than 90° made by the rhumb line and the meridian.