Navigate back to the activity.

By Liz Gire Spring 2016

Getting the balloons to rotate with a constant angular velocity is very difficult. The inflatable globes are easier, but the pens get snagged on the seams. The big take-home (that the Coriolis force switches direction) was infrequently noticed (which I don't really understand). I noticed that there is still a lot of confusion about the inertial vs the non-inertial frame. One student was really interested in the changing curvature and the larger relative velocity at the equator (same change in latitude per time but more east-west movement).