why do hurricanes spin counterclockwise in the northern hemisphere and clockwise in the southern hemisphere?

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I looked this up and it said the Coriolis effect so I looked that up and I have no clue what it’s talking about…

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Anonymous 0 Comments

ELI5: Everything should just “fly in a straight line” along the surface of our globe right? No, because the planet rotates. You shoot a cannonball ( while in the Northern Hemisphere) in a straight line north-east, and it will go slightly towards the equator because the Earth spins while the cannonball is still in flight.

Hurricanes are formed by winds (particles of gas and dust), which are subject to many different forces, but also the Coriolis, i.e the Earth’s rotation-caused “nudge”. The only thing that may be truly confusing is that this is not a “real” force; there is no push on these objects (because it’s just the inertia/frame of reference that seems to “push” the objects) and you can show this by math, that it’s just a frame of reference thing: you include the planet’s rotation and let the cannonball fly while the Earth spins and you watch from a still point from space, it becomes more obvious why it should curve from a straight path.

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