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Old 7th July 2002 | 21:31
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Eagle1
 
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 14
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From: Amsterdam, Holland
Is there Coriolis force at the equator?

A question to all the Met. wizz-kids (or anyone else, for that matter).

I just studied the subject of Coriolis force, and noticed that the force has to do with the latitude and angular velocity. Now, I always thought that at the equator angular velocity would be higher than at the poles, so, I, innocent student, thought that there would be more Coriolis force at the equator - and, suddenly, the book tells me that that's not the case, and that there's no Coriolis force at all at the equator. I would think that there would be less force at the poles, simply because there the surface of the earth hardly has any rotating speed.
I saw the formula, which says that Coriolis force has to do with the sinus of the latitude, but it just doesn't convince me (I'm more a person for plain language, I'm afraid).

Anyone who can shed some light? It would be much appreciated.
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