At latitude , the Earth's angular velocity in east–north–up coordinates is . Assume a small horizontal patch, constant , negligible vertical velocity, and a vertical constraint balancing effective gravity. Absorb the steady centrifugal force into that effective gravity. With and physical horizontal force per unit mass , the Coriolis force gives
Large-scale atmospheric and oceanic flows deflect to their right in the northern hemisphere and left in the southern hemisphere; their balance with a horizontal pressure gradient produces geostrophic flow. A Foucault pendulum has an oscillation plane that precesses relative to the ground at angular rate . Both effects vanish at the equator within this horizontal approximation.

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