Re: [Phys-l] Coriolis effect puzzlement

["LaMontagne, Bob" <RLAMONT@providence.edu>]

The cameras are not "space fixed" - they're geosynchronous.

Without the rotation of the earth (and the atmosphere) we would not be having this discussion. A low pressure system would be more like a doughnut shape with air coming straight in the bottom and exiting at the top - perhaps like a smoke ring.  There would be no overall counterclockwise rotation of storms in the Northern hemisphere.

If there actually were "fixed" cameras they would still show the same spiral shape to hurricanes. It's just the "explanation" would be based on conservation of momentum versus Coriolis effect.

Bob at PC


> -----Original Message-----
> From: phys-l-bounces@carnot.physics.buffalo.edu [mailto:phys-l-
> bounces@carnot.physics.buffalo.edu] On Behalf Of Bob Sciamanda
> Sent: Thursday, December 01, 2011 4:33 PM
> To: Forum for Physics Educators
> Subject: Re: [Phys-l] Coriolis effect puzzlement
>
> John Denker wrote:
>
> > The short answer is that the Coriolis effect is real physics, and will
> > be observed from airplanes *or anything else* if you look carefully.
>
> Consider a bullet shot with a horizontal velocity in the space over a rotating
> platform.  An overhead camera, fixed in space in an inertial frame,
>
> would record a straight line trajectory of this bullet. It sees no Coriolis effect.
>
> A camera rotating with the rotating platform would record a curved
> trajectory, due to a Coriolis effect. If the bullet could leave a track on the
> rotating
>
> platform, it too would have the Coriolis curvature. The Coriolis effect is an
> inertial effect, due to the rotation of an observer's/recorder's reference
> frame.
>
> If the space fixed camera records a curvature, it must be due to some real
> forces, certainly not a Coriolis effect.
>
>
> Bob Sciamanda
> Physics, Edinboro Univ of PA (Em)
> treborsci@verizon.net
> http://mysite.verizon.net/res12merh/
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