Question

(b) Alice is at the centre of a merry-go-round (carousel) of radius R. Bob watches from the side while Alice rotates on the merry-go-round. Alice throws a ball of mass m radially outwards with speed v, while she rotates with constant angular velocity w. Alice and Bob talk afterwards and she tells him how she saw the ball be deflected to the side, as if it were acted upon by some force. Help Bob explain this inertial force to Alice by identifying both frames of reference and showing that this inertial force (known as the Coriolis Force) has a magnitude of 2mwv. 6 Marks)

Answer 1

Coriolis force is a pseudo force that is taken into consideration when the point of reference or point of observation lies in an accelerating frame . F= 2mwv where w is angular velocity. Here Alice is rotating in circle, she has an acceleration pointing towards center of circle hence coriolis force is considered here. Alice observes the effect of coriolis on the ball .