New Scientist
Image: roboppy
If you have ever seen a whirling dervish in action, you may have been mesmerised by the complex three-dimensional patterns these dancers produce with their flowing skirts. It turns out that the patterns are buffeted by the same Coriolis force that produces destructive hurricanes.
Dervishes are Sufi Muslims who take a vow of poverty. Their whirling, ritual dance, which dates back to 13th century Persia, has become a tourist attraction in places such as Istanbul in Turkey. Fascinated, physicists James Hanna at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Jemal Guven at the National Autonomous University of Mexico in Mexico City and Martin Müller at the University of Lorraine in Metz, France, decided to work out the physics behind the skirt’s motion. Read more on newscientist.com…
