Allen is standing at the north pole. Brianna is standing at the equator. They ha

Question

Allen is standing at the north pole. Brianna is standing at the equator. They have identical masses and their motions are shown below What's different in the motions of the two? Which person would feel an unbalanced force? Explain. Draw a force diagram for each. Make sure to keep it conistent with what you said earlier. Suppose you had Allen stand on a bathroom scale and report his weight. You then call up Brianna and have her stand on an identical bathroom scale at the equator. Would they weight the same? Explain.

Explanation / Answer

Someone at the surface of the Earth sees phenomena called Coriolis effects as a result of the Earth's rotation.
      The vertical effect is an apparent reduction in the force of gravity as we move from the Poles to the Equator, and a resulting change in the rate of fall of objects; but actually, the force of gravity is approximately the same at every latitude, and if anything is greater at the Equator than at the Poles, because of the excess material wrapped around the bulge of the Equator.
      The horizontal effect is an apparent veering to the right or left of a straight-line path by an object moving horizontally; as viewed from space, the object is actually moving in as straight-line a path as possible, given the curvature of the Earth's surface.
      In other words, Coriolis effects can be viewed as an illusion caused by the rotation of the Earth, rather than real phenomena. They appear perfectly real to an observer moving with the Earth's rotation, but illusory to an observer viewing the motion from a reference frame fixed in space.

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