- #1
electricspit
- 66
- 4
Hey!
I was wondering about the concept of fictitious forces. I'm studying classical mechanics right now and we've made our way to non-inertial reference frames.
One major problem I have is trying to understand the Coriolis force for an object falling. I understand that if an object is traveling North it will be deflected East and that if it is traveling South it will be deflected West because of the differences in speeds as it crosses across the Earth. The major problem is when you drop an object say from a very high structure (with no wind resistance, etc) it will be deflected to the East! This doesn't make any sense at all physically, unless I'm missing some major linking point.
Could anyone clarify what is actually happening? Or is this some weird thing about observing this happening from an inertial reference frame. I'm still not quite clear on that concept either.
Thanks!
I was wondering about the concept of fictitious forces. I'm studying classical mechanics right now and we've made our way to non-inertial reference frames.
One major problem I have is trying to understand the Coriolis force for an object falling. I understand that if an object is traveling North it will be deflected East and that if it is traveling South it will be deflected West because of the differences in speeds as it crosses across the Earth. The major problem is when you drop an object say from a very high structure (with no wind resistance, etc) it will be deflected to the East! This doesn't make any sense at all physically, unless I'm missing some major linking point.
Could anyone clarify what is actually happening? Or is this some weird thing about observing this happening from an inertial reference frame. I'm still not quite clear on that concept either.
Thanks!