Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2011 ia Paper 4 10B b Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
Neglect the centrifugal acceleration, which is of order , and use the local flat-surface approximation. To zeroth order in , the height above and flight time areInserting this vertical velocity into the Coriolis acceleration gives the eastward componentWith , two integrations yieldto first order. Horizontal velocity is already of order , so its effect on vertical acceleration is of order . Thus the flight time remains at this order. The Coriolis deflection of a vertical projectile at landing isThe displacement is westward, and its magnitude is . The horizontal speed remains westward during the flight: . This explains why the eastward acceleration on descent does not cancel the earlier displacement.