Coriolis Force

The Coriolis force is an inertial force observed in rotating systems in conjunction with the conservation of angular momentum. It takes the mathematical form $2m{\boldsymbol {\Omega }}\times {\boldsymbol {v}}$ where $m$ is mass, ${\boldsymbol {\Omega }}$ is angular velocity, and ${\boldsymbol {v}}$ is the linear velocity. The expression first appeared in a paper written in the year 1835 by French scientist Gaspard-Gustave de Coriolis in connection with water wheels where he referred to is as a compound centrifugal force. The Coriolis force amounts to a transverse deflection of the radial component of motion relative to any arbitrarily chosen polar origin. It is a consequence of Newton's first law of motion and it is best observed in atmospheric cyclones, eccentric planetary orbits, and in precessing gyroscopes.