Coriolis Effect: (Slide 2)

Move the mouse over the image below to start the animation. Use the movie controls to replay or step through the animation.

Motion relative to a fixed reference frame: The path that the thrown ball takes is a straight line, as you can see. However, consider the ball leaving marks on the rotating carousel as it moves. The marks describe a circular pattern. The motion of the ball obeys Newton's law because it does travel in a straight line relative to the "inertial" reference system.

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