ROTATION PROBLEMS? REALLY?
I had the driver's door window of my SUV open yesterday. When I got back in and was heading down the road, I noticed a fly walking around on the back window. I don't like having flies in the car, and was silently planning its death when it flew up to the front dash on the passenger side. Opening that window a few inches was all it took; the fly made it to freedom.
I got to thinking... At the time the fly moved from the back to the front, I was on a highway going 60 mph. That's one fast fly! No... wait a minute, that ain't right; the car interior held its own atmosphere. I suppose it's kind of like the time I was riding on a train to Chicago when I was six years old. I tried jumping straight up several times (I was a good jumper in those days) to see where I would land in the car of that fast moving train. To my disappointment, I always landed right back in the spot from where I had jumped.
And, back in the days when people were still allowed to smoke on airplanes, that trail of smoke, rising straight up from the cigarette belonging to the butt head next to you, was something of a miracle. Do you suppose the same is true inside a spacecraft? Well of course; it must be. We've all seen those weightless astronauts and various objects floating around without disturbance at 18,000 mph.
Ever been on a spacecraft? Say yes; we all have, and are right now. Ours is called Earth. It's moving right along through space; spinning at the same time. And, it has it's own atmosphere.
About six years ago, on a dead still day following a pleasant spring rain, a friend invited me to take a ride in his hot air balloon. He and a few others in his club had an ongoing informal contest that had been underway for a few years. It was about who could stay aloft the longest and then land the closest to the take-off point with no directional assistance. Scoring was a feet-per minute thing, but you had to remain aloft for at least 45 minutes. At the time, he was running along in second place. The day looked promising for him to better his previous score of about 400 feet in a 90-minute flight.
On this day, with me aboard (a passenger was required), he managed to stay aloft at an altitude of less than 300 feet for 135 minutes, with the basket touching down a mere 77 feet from the spot where it had lifted off. Now he held the record, and by a sizable margin.
You know, given the rotation of Earth, we should have landed at least a couple of states away. Almost two time zones, for sure.
Enter the "Coriolis Effect," a relatively recent addition to the Shooter's Alibi Book covering reasons why shots are missed. However, in this case, even the Coriolis Effect believers don't believe it. They say that the target walks out from underneath the path of the bullet -- more so at longer ranges than at short range -- because Earth is turning. They're talking a flight time of a second or two. But, suppose a group of them watches while some idiot fires a shot straight up into the air. That flight up and back will take lots of seconds. Do you suppose they'll scatter and look for overhead shelter? Absolutely! They know the bullet will be coming straight down rather than roughly three miles away in a 12-second up-and-down flight.
A "snowbird" friend goes to Texas during the winter; not only to escape shoveling and driving in snow, but because he fears not being able to shoot most every day. He's superb at long range, so I put him on a task with his 338 Remington Ultra Mag. We have both found that this cartridge is inherently more accurate than the 338 Lapua, because its muzzle exit velocity is more uniform. We shoot these excellent, custom match rifles at distances of up to 1500 yards with very satisfying results. Clearly, though, the results are much more satisfying at 1200 and 1000 yards.
The perfect day came within a few weeks, and he launched 10 shots at a north-facing target using his top-tier F-Class rests, etc. Then he hopped into his pickup and moved into position 1200 yards downrange to shoot the south-facing target he was lying beside for the first volley. He collected both targets and, you guessed it, group centers were identical. On this particular day, he had managed to avoid the Coriolis Effect. He also mentioned that he has been able to avoid it on other days, for 30-some years, because he has never allowed for it no matter what direction and at what distance he is shooting. He did, however, say that he likes the whole idea of the Coriolis Effect, because it gives shooters who believe it something else to worry about.
JDC