Hey can someone explain to me how the Coriolis effect works?
Emilia Clarke
The Coriolis effect
Hey can someone explain to me how the Coriolis effect works?
Praeses
Re: The Coriolis effect
If a surface is rotating, an object travelling in a straight line overtop of that surface will appear to follow a curved path to an observer standing on the rotating surface.
It is a pretty simple concept, but the implication on the earths surface is counter-intuitive because we like to think of the surface of the Earth as motionless when it is not. Belows is an illustration of what would happen if you shot a cannon ball at the North Pole straight south. It will not travel straight south, but rather seems ot follow a curved path because the surface of the earth is rotating beneath it.
Emilia Clarke
Re: The Coriolis effect
Wow thanks a lot +rep for the good explanation!
Campidoctor
Re: The Coriolis effect
I've seen this on CoD... Does the Coriolis effect affect significantly a sniper shot from 800m?
Semper Gumby
Re: The Coriolis effect
When you are trying to hit a target that is only .3m across, yes, it can. Not tremendously so, but if you are trying to be very precise yes you would calculate that out.Originally Posted by mindOverdrive
Praeses
Re: The Coriolis effect
Imma put some numbers to it. But at the outset, I can see that your latitude is going to make a huge difference. If you shot N-S equal distance across the equator, there would actually be no effect. The maximum effect is shooting across the north or south pole.I've seen this on CoD... Does the Coriolis effect affect significantly a sniper shot from 800m?
(and your proper use of effect and affect has no place in a science forum.)
Some quick and dirty results...
Assuming an N-S 800m shot, with a bullet traveling at 800m/s (something like a 7.62 NATO)
Over top of either pole.................................5.8cm off
Halfway between a pole and the equator..... 4.1cm off
Over top of the equator.................................0cm off
It varies as as the sine of latitude and the cosine of shot angle off of true north.
Last edited by Sphere; January 31, 2012 at 09:34 PM.
Campidoctor
Re: The Coriolis effect
One might add that the most significant effect of the Coriolis force is not on the ballistics of sniper weapons, but on global weather. It makes the air in low pressure systems turn counter-clockwise, or clockwise in high-pressure systems (Northern Hemisphere).
"The cheapest form of pride however is national pride. For it reveals in the one thus afflicted the lack of individual qualities of which he could be proud, while he would not otherwise reach for what he shares with so many millions. He who possesses significant personal merits will rather recognise the defects of his own nation, as he has them constantly before his eyes, most clearly. But that poor blighter who has nothing in the world of which he can be proud, latches onto the last means of being proud, the nation to which he belongs to. Thus he recovers and is now in gratitude ready to defend with hands and feet all errors and follies which are its own."-- Arthur Schopenhauer
Praeses
Re: The Coriolis effect
But all the air around the bullet already is moving Eastwards (due to the Earth's rotation) so the bullet should be carried along with it. Irelanddeb: The Airplanes can correct their course using GPS.
Last edited by Nikitn; February 02, 2012 at 11:27 AM.
Re: The Coriolis effect
What implications does this have on the commercial airline industry?
Praeses
Re: The Coriolis effect
Air direction can be all over the place, I didn't pretend to include it. All I did was use the difference in tangential velocities (Absolute E-W velocity) between the shooter and the target which arises because they are at slightly different latitudes.But all the air around the bullet already is moving Eastwards (due to the Earth's rotation) so the bullet should be carried along with it. Irelanddeb: The Airplanes can correct their course using GPS.
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