Rotational Forces: Riding the Coriolis Carousel
Featured speaker
Boyd Edwards, PhD, physicist
Professor, Department of Physics, Utah State University
John Edwards, PhD, computer scientist
Assistant Professor, Department of Computer Science, Utah State University
Date
Friday, January 19, 2024
7 p.m. Eccles Science Learning Center,
Emert Auditorium, Room ESLC 130
Hands-on learning activities and refreshments follow the talk in the Eccles Science Learning Center atrium.
Admission is free and all ages are welcome.
Directions and Parking Information
Talk Description
Why do things get weird when you’re rotating, and where do all these weird forces from rotation come from?
Physicist Boyd Edwards and computer scientist John Edwards – who happen to be brothers – team up to help us understand these “weird” phenomena, with a little help from French scientist Gaspard-Gustave de Coriolis (1792-1843). Coriolis first described the inertial force (named for him) that a body experiences, when it moves with respect to a rotating frame of reference.
Sound confusing? Drs. Edwards and Edwards will sort it out for us, as they demonstrate, using a carousel, the centrifugal and Coriolis forces that we experience in rotating frames of reference. It will be an active, fun and spinning approach to science!