Gustave-Gaspard Coriolis

Engineer and mathematician, b. 21 May 1792 (Paris, France), d. 19 September 1843 (Paris).

Coriolis was assistant professor of analysis and mechanics at the École Polytechnique in Paris from 1816 until 1838. His first interest was the application of theoretical principles of mechanics to machines. His name is, however, linked with his analysis of the balance of forces in rotating coordinate systems. He showed that for an observer at a fixed location on Earth a moving body appears to experience a force that acts perpendicular to its movement (to the right in the Northern Hemisphere, to the left in the Southern Hemisphere).

This apparent force is the result of the rotation of the Earth; it does not exist and would not be observed by someone watching from a fixed location in space, but it has to be taken into account if the analysis is done relative to a fixed location on Earth.

Among Coriolis' works are

• Du calcul de l'effet des machines (1829; "On the Calculation of Mechanical Action"),
• Sur les équations du mouvement relatif des systèmes de corps (1835; "On the Equations of Relative Motion of Systems of Bodies"),
• Théorie mathématique des effets du jeu de billiard (1835; "Mathematical Theory of the Game of Billiards"), and
• Traité de la mechanique des corps solides (1844; "Treatise on the Mechanics of Solid Bodies").

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