Fake Forces
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Hi, I'm Bryan Yeaton and this is The Weather Notebook.

Unlike legislated laws in societies of the world, the laws of physics cannot be broken. This reality holds in spite of the fact that some of these enforcing forces are fake.

First let's look at real forces. There are only four of them in our universe and they are, gravity, the electromagnetic force, the weak nuclear force, and the strong nuclear force. These are considered real because they work on attractions between clumps of matter, whether it's between you and the earth or between the molecules that hold together water, air, or rocks.

In fake forces, matter doesn't matter, motion matters. Take for instance that NASCAR nemesis often referred to as centrifugal force. Say you're the passenger in any old car, don't do this if you're the driver, with your right arm on the armrest as you go into a tight left hand turn. Now shut your eyes and pretend you don't do anything about cars or roads or angular momentum. As far as you can tell the door has somehow started to push against your right arm. In fact, there is no way to prove that it isn't (unless of course you open your eyes). That force is called fake because it only exists when the motion exists.

Another fake force influences direction of motion in things in the air above our planet, which is constantly spinning or rounding the corner you might say; things like cold fronts, snowstorms, jet streams and hurricanes. It's called the Coriolis force and it's responsible for the dynamic spinning and curving action of the atmosphere, and it too, in the law books of physics, is a fake.

Thanks today to writer Dave Thurlow of Jackson, New Hampshire. The Weather Notebook is a production of the Mount Washington Observatory. It is underwritten generously by Subaru. For more on fake physics,visit our website at weathernotebook.org.