What causes winds to be deflected to the right or the left as they flow from high pressure to low pressure?
1 Answer
Coriolis Effect.
Explanation:
Some people will insist that this is a force, however it is only an apparent force, and it is caused by the rotation of the Earth.
The best way to envision how this works is to take a paper plate and a marker. Put the marker in the middle of the plate and draw a line to the edge. You now have a straight line. Now put the marker back in the center of the plate and move it in the exact same manner only this time have a friend rotate the plate. You end up with a curved line. What happened?
While you applied the same force in both examples, in the second example the end point moved. This is what is happening when the Earth rotates. The initial force that you applied to the marker is representative of what we call the pressure gradient force. The force that moved the plate represents is the revolution of the Earth. The fact that the line is curved is the result of the Coriolis Effect.
