In meteorology, Buys Ballot's law may be expressed as follows: In the Northern Hemisphere, if a person stands with his back to the wind, the low pressure area will be on his left. This is because wind travels counterclockwise around low pressure zones in the Northern Hemisphere. It is approximately true in the higher latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere, and is reversed in the Southern Hemisphere, but the angle between the pressure gradient force and wind is not a right angle in low latitudes.
Famous quotes containing the words buys, ballot and/or law:
“The Muses inspire art and pretend not to notice when Mammon buys it.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)
“I do not think the mere extension of the ballot a panacea for all the ills of our national life. What we need to-day is not simply more voters, but better voters.”
—Frances Ellen Watkins Harper (1825–1911)
“They are the lovers of law and order who observe the law when the government breaks it.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)