Why Newton’s bucket cannot account for Earth’s rotation
International audience This note illustrates, at an undergraduate level, how an a priori legitimate assumption of uniform gravity can lead to intuitively satisfying but false results. Considering the simple situation of a liquid contained in a bowl at rest with respect to the ground at the North Pol...
| Published in: | European Journal of Physics |
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| Main Author: | |
| Other Authors: | , |
| Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
HAL CCSD
2018
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://hal.science/hal-01659126 https://hal.science/hal-01659126/document https://hal.science/hal-01659126/file/Bucket-AW-EurJPhys.pdf https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6404/aa8bab |
| Summary: | International audience This note illustrates, at an undergraduate level, how an a priori legitimate assumption of uniform gravity can lead to intuitively satisfying but false results. Considering the simple situation of a liquid contained in a bowl at rest with respect to the ground at the North Pole, we look for the shape of its surface, taking Earth’s rotation into account. The classical problem of a rotating fluid is converted to that of the determination of Earth’s shape. |
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