Re: [Phys-l] Coriolis effect puzzlement

["Bob Sciamanda" <treborsci@verizon.net>]

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/