Buys Ballot's law
Leyes de Buys-Ballot
- Date
- 1857 · confidence high
- Place
- Utrecht, Netherlands
- Credited to
- C. H. D. Buys Ballot
- Field
- Cosmos & Earth
What was discovered
Describes how, in the Northern Hemisphere, low atmospheric pressure lies to the left of a person standing with their back to the wind (and to the right in the Southern Hemisphere), due to winds circulating around low-pressure centres.
What it led to
- Practical tool for weather forecasting without instruments
- Adoption in naval and aviation training
- Contribution to the development of the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI), founded by the same author