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Grex Enigma Item 234: Why don't our winds come from the East? [linked]
Entered by chi1taxi on Sat Dec 10 00:54:20 UTC 1994:

I'm entering this on Enigma, and will link to Environment.
The winds should come from the East, not the West.  The earth spins from
west to east (counter-clockwise as seen from the North Pole).  Therefore, as
it moves through the atmosphere, "the atmosphere" (the wind) should be 
appear to come from the east, like the sun.

10 responses total.

#1 of 10 by mwarner on Sat Dec 10 02:35:55 1994:

We'd all be in big troubl  if the atmosphere weren't spinning with the
planet. The wind blows in all directions, with ocean, ice caps and
mountains (among many other factors) affecting temperature and therefore
prevailing directions in given locations.  Correct? Who's studied
climatology?

#2 of 10 by rcurl on Sat Dec 10 08:04:37 1994:

Yes, if the atmosphere were stationary, the wind velocity due to the
earth' rotation would be 1000 mph at the equator. However the fluid
atmosphere on a rotating earth has some interesting consequences, one
of which is the counterclockwise rotation of hurricanes in the northern
hemisphere. (Most, but not all, tornadoes, also rotate CCW.)

#3 of 10 by remmers on Sat Dec 10 12:13:20 1994:

Yes, and if you observe water running out of a drain, in the northern
hemisphere it flows counterclockwise, and in the southern hemisphere
counterclockwise.  For even wear, a drain should be transported to
the opposite hemisphere once every three or four years.

#4 of 10 by rcurl on Sat Dec 10 19:58:19 1994:

I have a little tool that I will sell to you for $50, which will
*reverse the rotation of water running out a drain*, thereby
*countering the force of the rotating earth*. Get them while they
last!

#5 of 10 by chi1taxi on Sun Dec 11 03:50:24 1994:

Snord: Maybe you set set up a newsgroup on internet for "drain buddies."
It could be used for those in N.H. to swap drains with those in S.H.

#6 of 10 by chi1taxi on Sun Dec 11 07:50:34 1994:

I  don't contest the concept that gravity and friction move the atmosphere
in the same direction as the spin of the earth.  Bt geeze, that's not a 
steel gear drive, there's lot's of lag, and I'm sure that if someone sat
down and did the calculations, a huge amount of lag.  I don't think the
question has been answered.

#7 of 10 by rcurl on Sun Dec 11 08:07:52 1994:

There is nothing *above* the atmosphere to hold it back, so the
atmosphere just moves along with the earth - like the oceans do.
For that matter, like the rocks do (at the scale of the earth, the
crust is extremely weak, and flows like a fluid, though rather more
viscous than air). So, what would tend to cause any "lag". It is *not*
like the earth moving in a pail of air, where the pail itself would
tend to slow the motion of the air. Air is just a substance held to
the surface of the earth by gravity - like you.

#8 of 10 by chi1taxi on Sun Dec 11 08:24:22 1994:

Ah ha!

#9 of 10 by remmers on Sun Dec 11 15:36:29 1994:

Wouldn't wind resistance tend to make the atmosphere lag?  Uh, on second
thought, never mind...

#10 of 10 by rcurl on Mon Dec 12 06:35:01 1994:

There are winds that are induced by the earth's rotation, but these are
part of the weather system, which is also driven by the solar heating at
the equator and radiation cooling at the poles, etc. One result is the
"prevailing westerlies" in the northern hemisphere, which are a
consequence of what is known as the Coriolis Effect (of the earth's
rotation).

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