Further Coriolis correlation considerations
DOI: 10.1063/PT.3.1764
The last paragraph of Christopher Graney’s letter (Physics Today, August 2011, page 8 ) includes mention of three scientists who dealt with the effects of Earth’s rotation on the motion of bodies or fluids. One was Gaspard-Gustave Coriolis, who is often credited with the first mathematical formulation of the effect that now bears his name. However, as David Cartwright, 1 Adrian Gill, 2 and Pedro Ripa 3 all point out, Pierre Simon Laplace (1749–1827) first introduced the mathematical formulation of the Coriolis force in 1775, 17 years before Coriolis’s birth. In the hydrodynamic equations that he used to provide the first dynamical description of tides in the ocean, Laplace incorporated an appropriate approximation to the Coriolis force’s horizontal component.
References
1. D. E. Cartwright, Tides: A Scientific History, Cambridge U. Press, New York (1999).
2. A. E. Gill, Atmosphere–Ocean Dynamics, Academic Press, San Diego, CA (1982).
3. P. Ripa, La increíble historia de la malentendida fuerza de Coriolis, Fondo de Cultura Económica, Tlalpan, Mexico (1996).
More about the authors
Manuel López-Mariscal, (malope@cicese.mx) Ensenada Center for Scientific Research and Higher Education (CICESE), Ensenada, Mexico.
