Mother Earth rotates counter-clockwise when viewed from the North Pole at a given speed of 15.04* / hr. At the equator this speed corresponds to 903 nm / hr. If we travel from the Equator to 30* north or south latitude, the Earth rotates at the same rpm, but the relative speed is 781 nm / hr. Now if we are a parcel of air and we proceed to go in either one of these directions, from the equator, we are traveling at a greater speed then the earth below so we move to the right when viewed from the ground. If we are at 30* north and at our relative velocity of 781, then moving to the south will mean that we are slower then the equatorial speed of 903, and we will fall off to the left. Same thing if we are south and move north to the Equator, we will fall off to the left. The Coriolis force is a perceived force that we use while we are spinning about, the fault can be traced back to Newton and his insistence that an object continue in a straight line, unless acted upon by an outside force. Now to the particle of air it is moving in a straight line, but to the casual observer on the ground, the particle seems to curve right if it's increasing latitude, or left if it's decreasing latitude. It's about changing your frame of reference. Be the particle.....and you travel straight, be the observer and you see a curve.
The magnitude of the Coriolis force can be reduced to the form:
2vwsin (latitude)
Where
V = velocity of object in question
w = angular velocity of Earth, 15.04 deg / hr or 7.292116X10-5 rad/sec
So you can see at the Equator the sin of 0 is 0, there is no relative deflection, and at the pole the sin of 90 is 1 so you have your initial velocity coupled with your angular velocity. So a particle of air at the poles is blowing at 903 nm/ hr, and that is why it is such a harsh environment and most people want to live at the lower latitudes. Besides, as speed increases time slows down, so you live longer at the Equator.
Last edited by '%MAC'; 8th July 2002 at 00:34.