Gustave-Gaspard Coriolis

Coriolis, detail of a portrait by Zéphirin Belliard, 19th century, after a painting by Jean Roller; in the Académie des Sciences, ParisCourtesy of the Archives de l’Académie des Sciences de Paris; photograph, J. Colomb-Gerard, Paris

Gustave-Gaspard Coriolis,  (born May 21, 1792Paris—died Sept. 19, 1843, Paris), French engineer and mathematician who first described the Coriolis force, an effect of motion on a rotating body, of paramount importance to meteorology, ballistics, and oceanography.


Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.In 1835 he published a paper, “Sur les équations du mouvement relatif des systèmes de corps” (“On the Equations of Relative Motion of Systems of Bodies”), in which he showed that on a rotating surface, in addition to the ordinary effects of motion of a body, there is an inertial force acting on the body at right angles to its direction of motion. This force results in a curved path for a body that would otherwise travel in a straight line. The Coriolis force on Earth determines the general wind directions and is responsible for the rotation of hurricanes and tornadoes. His other works include Traité de la mécanique des corps solides (1844; “Treatise on the Mechanics of Solid Bodies”) and Théorie mathématique des effets du jeu de billiard (1835; “Mathematical Theory of the Game of Billiards”).