Is the Coriolis effect the Piltdown man of meteorology?

Question

To physicx:

The bullet travels in a straight line from the point where it was in space when it left the gun.This is irrespective of whether or not Earth spins or moves around the Sun.

If the ground were covered with sensors that lit when the missile travelled overhead a curved line would certainly be described. This would not tell of the missile's path but of the Earth's movement.

If it were possible to set an object stationary in space, and let the heavenly bodies do whatever is their wont, the sensors would show a curved line. This line would have been created by the Earth's spin modified by its curved journey around the Sun and modified again by the Sun's movement. The object would not have moved.

You state, "So it causes the bullet to turn right as it moves north". IT DOESN'T.

Also, "Blah Blah Blah...it still curves right". IT DOESN'T.

To sava:

What's the charge, heresy?

I'm after the truth. Piltdown man could have delayed proper work. Coriolis could do the same if untrue

Answer 1

The Coriolis Effect is certainly real, and is the reason why rotating weather systems rotate in opposite ways in the northern and southern hemispheres.  In your arguments in your updates, you are still only thinking in two dimensions.  You talk about an eastward movement of a projectile launched due north from the equator, but we don't have a plane moving straight to the east, we have a sphere rotating eastwards.  If the projectile truly moved in a straight line then it would appear to curve upwards and away from the Earth altogether.

If you look at a weather system on a synoptic chart, you'll see that the wind flows almost ALONG the isobars, rather than 'straight' inwards to the low pressure areas.  This is the Coriolis Effect at work.  In the northern hemisphere, stand with the wind at your back.  The low pressure will be to your left.  Do the same in the southern hemisphere and the low pressure will be to your right.

Don't worry that you can't easily get your head around it - it's not an easy one, but you have to think in the full three dimensions of a rotating sphere.

Answer 2

Your Q prompted me to look up Piltdown Man.  It means hoax and interestingly you chose a phrase that comes from another scientific field, archaeology.  Very cool, thanks!

But the effects of the Coriolis effect are very real.  You couldn't have hurricanes without it.

The proof of it is found more in math than in physics.  It's easier to imagine why a bullet fired northward in the northern hemisphere turns to the right.  When it's fired it has more eastward momentum than it would have if it were fired from some place farther north.  So it causes the bullet to turn right as it moves north.  

But if you fire a bullet eastward along a line where everywhere should have the same momentum, it still curves right.  That's where it becomes more mathematical.

edit:  I'm sorry, I don't understand what you are asking then.  Are you saying that Coriolis is not real?  Or are you questioning how people have shown how it works?  Your question/update is vague.