After a little digging I now understand the Coriolis Effect is real, it's just that the way they carried out the experiment is flawed. And considering it was filmed at a tourist spot and carried out by someone who was most likely hoping to earn a little extra in tips, cause who can't use a few extra bucks, we must throw rocks in condemnation.

Just thump a coin in the cup before you walk away.

As an example, Snopes talks about the validity of this video here. https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/coriolis-effect/

Sorry dude but i'm gonna have to downvote this one

completely bogus demonstration: if you look carefully, you will see that the water in the basin for the first demonstration was completely still - and drained straight down. But for the north and south demonstrations, she poured the water into the basin at one side of the basin - setting up circulation in the basin - and immediately pulled the plug. What she was demonstrating was conservation of angular momentum, not the coriolis effect.

It's a real phenomenon for vortices measuring hundreds of miles in diameter, yes. At that size, the coriolis effect (the difference in rotational speed of the northern and southern extremes) is a huge factor.

For a vortex measuring a few inches in diameter, not so much. It takes rather extreme measures to make the coriolis effect the largest factor.

The coriolis effect is stronger the closer you get to the poles - "demonstrations" on the equator showing different swirl directions on two different buckets 50m north and 50m south of the equatorial line is just humbug.

Just an educated guess but I suspect it's a tiny correction for wind drift which has been exaggerated by the camera angle.

The effects I think your referring to are called the "Coriolis" effect and "Gyro drift" and while they would have a similar effect this is seems like far too short of a range for them to come into play even at the relatively low velocity of that shell. That said its possible that with such a big round like that sabot "gyro drift" and maybe some sort of torque effect from leaving the barrel might be at work...

Gyro drift is due to the fact that the spinning bullet/shell starts to be pulled out of line by gravity causing the originally stable oscillation to slowly get knocked out of whack dragging the nose of the round out of line causing the round to pull slightly towards the direction it's spinning (though with a stable modern round this is very very subtle and only really comes into play at at least 1-2mile plus ranges).

The Coriolis effect is due to the fact that the earth itself is spinning. Over very long ranges the earth itself moves relative to the path of the round and so for 1-2mile plus shots one may need to compensate depending on the velocity and ballistic properties of the round. (this is why snipers tend to operate as a team because the maths and reference material necessary to account for all this plus standard bullet drop, variable wind conditions, atmospherics etc. etc. as well as maintaining situational awareness is a big ask for one person.)

Like I said though it seems unlikely they would have such a pronounced effect at such a relatively short range, the camera angle is definitely exaggerating what ever is going on there.


EDIT: I just watched it again, pretty sure it's just the camera angle (camera is slightly off to the left) I think the shell looks like it's actually travelling dead straight.

Coriolis Effect?

Poor science. Coriolis effect plays no role in this at all.

http://www.snopes.com/science/coriolis.asp

Sounds like the Coriolis effect to me.

> or they will erect a post

Indeed, perhaps she will leave a trail of freshly erected posts behind her as she spins her way from town to town.

Dag, I suspect the escalators in the Southern hemisphere will spin you in the opposite direction due to the Coriolis effect. In fact, you should exercise extreme caution because the effect in the Southern hemispher may be to turn you inside out as opposed to round and round.

No biggie. That damn Coriolis effect messes with everyone's heads more than it should.

In reply to this comment by oxdottir:
I hang my head in shame. you are correct.

In reply to this comment by CaptWillard:
>> ^oxdottir:
Our Australian/SouthAfrican/Brazilian friends are going to be surprised at where north is if they use this method...

Wait, wouldn't it work the same regardless of what hemisphere you're in? The sun moves from East to West in both hemispheres, right? So the shadow produced after waiting 15 minutes would still point East, thus making North the same too. Am I mistaken?