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Inertial Motion On The Earth's Spheroidal Surface, Boyd F. Edwards, Cade Pankey, John M. Edwards

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As seen by an observer in the rotating frame, the earth’s small spheroidal deformations neutralize the centrifugal force, leaving only the smaller Coriolis force to govern the “inertial” motion of objects that move on its surface, assumed smooth and frictionless. Previous studies of inertial motion employ weakly spheroidal equations of motion that ignore the influence of the centrifugal force and yet treat the earth as a sphere. The latitude dependence of these equations renders them strongly nonlinear. We derive and justify these equations and use them to identify, classify, name, describe, and illustrate all possible classes of inertial motion, including …