ABSTRACT
The redistribution round this planet of heat energy heavily depends on the ‘Coriolis force’. Named after the French mathematical physicist who delineated it in 1835, it acts to deflect any mass crossing a rotating surface,21 a rolling ball following a curved path across a spinning turntable being an illustration often proffered. Air and water currents are subject to Coriolis, whatever their magnitude. Witness water spiralling into a drainpipe. The influence on horizontal vectors is greatest at the poles in that the rotation of the Earth there appears entirely horizontal. It is nil round the equator.
