What is the Coriolis Effect

The Coriolis Effect was first explained by the 19th century mathematician and engineer, Gustave Coriolis. The Coriolis Effect can be described as a phenomena caused by the rotational motion of the Earth. It affects all free-moving objects and the atmosphere and ocean currents.

To illustrate this occurrence, James E. McDonald described a merry-go-round as his "Coriolian coordinate system." In his example, there are two  people on a merry-go-round and one person standing on the ground off of the merry-go-round. As the merry-go-round begins to spin counterclockwise, the two people on it try to play a game of catch. However, each time one of them tries to throw the ball it seems to veer right of the intended path. This is because his reference system is the spinning merry-go-round. To the person who is not on the merry-go-round, the ball follows a very normal path. McDonald goes on to describe the Earth, itself, as a spherical merry-go-round. Below is a picture of a top-view of the merry-go-round experiment.

Retrieved from http://puhep1.princeton.edu/~mcdonald/JEMcDonald/mcdonald_sa_186_5_72_52.pdf



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