The first time I heard of Coriolis force was in Rendezvous with Rama. Clarke describes how the astronauts entering the alien craft did so at the centre of one end and had to move to the perimeter. Since the entire craft was rotating they needed to cope with the craft moving under them.
Second time was not much later, in geography class learning about weather.
The Coriolis pendulum is a classic science demonstration I’ve seen in a number of science museums (musea?) around North America. Because the earth is turning, the pendulum does not continue to swing, say North-South because each swing, the earth moves further at one end of the swing than the other - say at a northern latitude, the earth is turning slower 5 feet further north than it is south. (becasue the diameter hence circumference “line of latitude” of the Earth at a about 45° latitude is smaller the further north of that you go, larger further south, but still does 360° in 1 day.)
it’s also why we have a Gulf (of Mexico) Stream going northeast to Iceland and Ireland… As well as much of the weather. Hurricanes also head northeast from the Gulf of Mexico when they’ve done their business to southern states.
Imagine if you were playing tennis on the inside surface of one of those big space habitat cylinders, back and forth along the axis direction. When you hit the ball, it would go straight, but you and the court are turning - so the ball would appear to have a coriolis “force” pulling it in the opposite direction of rotation, but actually it’s just you rotating and the ball displaying inertia.
Now imagine doing the same thing on the outside of a sphere that is rapidly rotating but has the gravity to hold you down. Hit north, ball curves east. Hit south, ball curves west.
Thanks. I vaguely recall the discussion that this effect on the inner ear during a tight turn is something pilots have to be aware of.
Yeah. You can really give yourself a doozy of a confusion with abrupt 3D motion. It’s like ordinary dizziness turned up to eleventy.
One last quote (from Babylon’s Ashes):
“The governor’s palace was close to the docks, out near the skin of the station where the spin gravity was greatest and the Coriolis least.”