Coriolis Effect

In 1835, French engineer-mathematician Gustav-Gaspard Coriolis described a phenomenon of bodies moving in a rotating frame of reference. He showed that an object will undergo an apparent deflection from its intended path, and that this 'Coriolis' effect must be considered when attempting to apply laws of motion. One can observe the Coriolis effect most easily when examining an object in motion. On earth, for example, an object moving along a north-south path will undergo an apparent westward deflection while in the northern hemisphere, and eastward deflection while in the southern hemisphere. There are reasons for this, but basically things attached to the earth move faster at the equator than they do at the poles.
Therefore, if one were to watch an object mover from the equator toward the North Pole, its path would be deflected toward the east. If that object were fired from a point at North Pole to a point on the equator in a southward direction, a person would see a deflection to ...