Tag: physics

Stranger than Fiction: A Derivation of the Coriolis Force to Explain the Path of Hurricanes and Snowballs on Carousels

~ Josh Fialkow ~ 1 Comment

For a long time I wondered how we can mathematically intuit the fictitious Coriolis Force (title image taken from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coriolis_force) . For those unacquainted with this force, the best place to understand it is on a carousel. While riding this carousel, imagine you are on the southern most spot and your friend is on the … Continue reading Stranger than Fiction: A Derivation of the Coriolis Force to Explain the Path of Hurricanes and Snowballs on Carousels

The Tiniest Changes Add Up: How Infinitesimals Preserve Constant Area in Geometry and Unit Elasticity in Economics

~ Josh Fialkow ~ Leave a comment

In our previous post, we found that area cannot be maintained through equal but opposite percent changes in length and width using algebraic techniques. We determined that when we increased length by a certain percentage and decreased width by the same percentage, our new area calculation was derived through a downward sloping parabola of the … Continue reading The Tiniest Changes Add Up: How Infinitesimals Preserve Constant Area in Geometry and Unit Elasticity in Economics