Re: [Phys-l] Coriolis effect puzzlement

[Paul Nord <Paul.Nord@valpo.edu>]

Bob,

Your confusion may be simply this:  The pictures of the clouds are not measurements of the motion.  The shapes are formed because the wind has been moving in particular patterns.  The clouds will maintain their shape in a still photo whether that photo is taken from the ground, from a moving plane, or from the surface of the moon.

Paul

On Dec 1, 2011, at 12:55 PM, Bob Sciamanda wrote:

> A puzzlement (or a dumb question) ===>
>
> Why is the Coriolis effect observed in pictures taken from airplanes?  Is 
> the airplane camera in a rotating frame?
>
> I refer, for example, to Figure 12 of 
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coriolis_effect.
>
> The cloud rotation does not seem to be merely “relative to the ground” – the 
> ground isn’t even visible. 
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