The Beginning

How many card-carrying physicists remember WHY Coriolis introduced his famous theory relating to Earth's rotation, 170 years ago?

In those days, the way the solar system works was still very much in doubt. The astronomical proof of the heliocentric nature of the system had just recently gained wide acceptance. Those few who saw and understood the proof were awfully excited about it--and were awfully proud of themselves. This led directly to a belief among the intelligentsia that-- if you were smart enough--you could find proof of Earth's rotation in Earth herself--WITHOUT RESORT TO ASTRONOMICAL MEANS. The race was on! It was an intellectual footrace. To the winner would go laurel wreaths, fame, wealth, prestige--immortality. Enter Coriolis. This is the context. This was where Coriolis and his contemporaries were coming from. (In other words, they really convinced themselves that: "Dumb old Galileo had to use the stars to see that Earth rotates. We're smarter than that. Smarter than Galileo, Copernicus, Newton, Archimedes--all those old dudes. As modern brains, we can make Earth give up the secret of her rotation. We're hot stuff.")

Maybe this atmosphere--this bubbling mixture of intellectual and personal ambition--helps explain the early acceptance of the Coriolis Effect as good science. But it hardly excuses it.

Coriolis was an idiot. Correction. He was either an idiot or an out-and-out con man.