- #1
peanutaxis
- 25
- 3
If Earth was turned into an air-hockey planet, with no friction (or air friction), and I was in New York and I shoved an air hockey puck North, would the hockey puck trace out the same sinusoidal-type path that a satellite/space station does (spending an equal amount of time in the northern and southern hemispheres), or would it trace out one of the little circles in the picture on the right of this section of this article on the Coriolis Effect?
Something doesn't add up. If the puck would just do a small circle, then why don't space stations do small circles? For they are only 400km up? And if it would do space-station sinusoidal circles, then what the hell is with the Wiki article on Coriolis?!?
Thanks.
EDIT: "The coriolis force has no effect on the motion of an object when viewed from a non-rotating reference frame."
There is no way those small circles in the Wikipedia article are correct, because if they are, then what the hell is keeping my frictionless puck above the equator? There are no forces except gravity acting on my puck, so it is tracing a great circle which must dip below the equator.
Something doesn't add up. If the puck would just do a small circle, then why don't space stations do small circles? For they are only 400km up? And if it would do space-station sinusoidal circles, then what the hell is with the Wiki article on Coriolis?!?
Thanks.
EDIT: "The coriolis force has no effect on the motion of an object when viewed from a non-rotating reference frame."
There is no way those small circles in the Wikipedia article are correct, because if they are, then what the hell is keeping my frictionless puck above the equator? There are no forces except gravity acting on my puck, so it is tracing a great circle which must dip below the equator.
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