Why Newton’s bucket cannot account for Earth’s rotation

• Published in: European Journal of Physics
• Main Author: Watzky, Alexandre
• Other Authors: Laboratoire de Modélisation et Simulation Multi Echelle (MSME), Université Paris-Est Marne-la-Vallée (UPEM)-Université Paris-Est Créteil Val-de-Marne - Paris 12 (UPEC UP12)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2018
• Subjects: fluid mechanics; Earth's rotation; Huygens; Newton; [PHYS.PHYS.PHYS-CLASS-PH]Physics [physics]/Physics [physics]/Classical Physics [physics.class-ph]; [PHYS.MECA]Physics [physics]/Mechanics [physics]; [PHYS.MECA.MEFL]Physics [physics]/Mechanics [physics]/Fluid mechanics [physics.class-ph]; North Pole
• 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

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.