ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Coriolis–Stokes force

Okay kiddo, do you know that the Earth spins around its own axis like a top? That's what causes day and night. Well, because the Earth is spinning, things that are moving on the Earth, like wind and water, also seem like they are being pushed to one side.

This is called the Coriolis force. Imagine if you were sitting on a spinning merry-go-round and you tried to throw a ball to your friend, but the merry-go-round was spinning so fast that the ball curved away from them. That's kind of what happens with the Coriolis force.

Now, the Stokes force is a bit different. It's like when you're driving on a bumpy road and all the bumps and dips in the road make your car shake and vibrate. The Stokes force is like that, but instead of bumps and dips in a road, it happens when tiny particles, like dust or pollen, are moving through a fluid, like air or water. The fluid pushes and pulls on the particles and makes them move in strange ways.

So, the Coriolis-Stokes force is a combination of these two forces. It's what happens when particles are moving through a fluid that is spinning, like water going down a drain or air moving around the Earth. The force twists and turns the particles in unpredictable ways and can make things like hurricanes or tornadoes form!