The Coriolis Effect Apparently Described in Giovanni Battista Riccioli's Arguments Against the Motion of the Earth: An English Rendition of Almagestum Novum Part II, Book 9, Section 4, Chapter 21, Pages 425, 426-7

TL;DR

This paper analyzes Giovanni Battista Riccioli's 1651 argument against Earth's rotation, highlighting its early description of what is now known as the Coriolis effect in the context of historical scientific debates.

Contribution

It uncovers and contextualizes Riccioli's early argument as an early description of the Coriolis effect within 17th-century astronomy.

Findings

Riccioli's argument predates formal description of Coriolis effect

Historical analysis of 17th-century scientific debates

Identification of early physics concepts in historical texts

Abstract

In his encyclopedic work on astronomy, the 1651 Almagestum Novum, the Italian Jesuit Giovanni Battista Riccioli (1598-1671) argued against the movement of the Earth on the grounds that (among other things), if the Earth rotated, that rotation should produce a deflection in the trajectories of projectiles. This argument appears to be an early description of the Coriolis effect.