Coriolis Effect

[yyh020635]

Hi everyone,

 

I am studying about the coriolis effect which affects the hurricane's spinning direction on the earth. I

 

got lots of confusion on it but I wish to figure it out.

 

Here are my two questions which I really hope you can explain in details.

 

1. In terms of conservation of angular momentum, how does the earth's rotation affect the direction in

 

large-scale wind? (why is the path curved?)

 

2. Somebody told me that the different toilet flush rotation direction between north and south

 

hemisphere is due to the Coriolis effect, is it true taht the Coriolis effect can really cause effects in

 

small scale?

 

Thanks in advance! Really really thank you! Posting useful pictures for description would be fine.

[swansont]

1. Think about the angular momentum of the mass of the storm, i.e. how fast is it moving owing to the rotation of the earth. What happens to that speed as it moves north (or south)?

 

http://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/watkins/hurricanepaths.htm

 

2. It should be clear that this is bunk, since the speed difference between the two edges of the bowl is much smaller than the speed of the water that's draining.

[cosinus]

To understand truly the Coriolis effect and its wide variety of appearances including influences on winds and toilet flush rotation, I recommend that you refer to this article :

http://www.adilca.com/coriolis-force.pdf