In the battle of the Falkland Islands in 1914, the shots of British gunners intially fell wide of their marks?

Question

In the battle of the Falkland Islands in 1914, the shots of British gunners intially fell wide of their marks because their calculations were based on naval battles fought in the Northern Hemisphere. The Falklands are in the Southern Hemisphere. Explain the origin of their problem.

Please help, this question is from a physics textbook chapter 11 covering angular momentum and I've no idea how to answer it. Thanks!

Answer 1

The "Coriolis Effect" is the apparent deflection of projectiles when viewed from a rotating frame of reference - that is, the Earth. In the Northern Hemisphere, it appears that the projectile deflected to the right. In the Southern Hemisphere, the deflection is to the left. It appears that this problem wishes you to believe that the British gunners used the Northern Hemisphere correction in their initial rounds rather than the Southern Hemisphere one, which would cause them to miss well to the left.

Answer 2

I believe that a cannon shot south of the equator would spin in the opposite direction than it does in the north. Since spin effects torque and torque effects angular momentum that is probably what happened.

Answer 3

Doesn't make much sense to me. Seems you would have to adjust your aim each time you fired if it was a miss.

Answer 4

haha im from argentina