The forces of inertial oscillations

Abstract

Abstract By starting with a free particle and successively adding constraints, it is shown that the free motion of a particle constrained to the Earth's surface is inertial, despite statements in the literature to the contrary, and that an observer on this particle would not measure a force tangent to the Earth's surface. However, if the observer extended his measurements to include the direction normal to the Earth's surface then he would detect an oscillating force. Copyright © 2012 Royal Meteorological Society