Description:
This illustration is designed to be used together with the image Forces_oblate_spheroid2

The arrows represent tendencies that are present in the case of a buoyant mass, that is travelling in westward direction. That is: the buoyant mass is travelling westward with respect to the Earth. The arrow marked 'Coriolis effect' represents a tendency to be pulled towards the Earth's axis of rotation, a tendency that is proportional to the westward velocity. This tendency can be decomposed in a component that is normal to the surface it is resting on and a component that is tangent to the surface it is resting on. The "vertical component" is called the Eötvös effect and the "horizontal component" corresponds to the Coriolis effect as taken into account in meteorology.

This means that in the case of wind that flowing in westward direction the Earth's gravitation will tend to pull the air mass towards the nearest pole.

Created: 12 april 2006

Source: The image is a reworked version of an image by Anders Persson, published this article archive copy at the Wayback Machine (PDF-file 800 KB). In personal email communication, permission has been granted by Anders Persson to reuse the image.

Author: Cleonis

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