Information About

Hodograph
  CATEGORIES ABOUT HODOGRAPH
   
classical mechanics
   
basic meteorological concepts and phenomena
   
winds
   
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  Accessdate 2007-05-30
  Url http://amsglossaryallenpresscom/glossary/searchid=hodograph1




APPLICATIONS

It is used in Physics , Astronomy and Fluid Mechanics to plot deformation of material, motion of planet or any other data that involves the velocities of different part of a body.

See Swinging Atwood's Machine


Meteorology

(Source: NOAA )]]
In Meteorology , hodographs are used to plot Wind s from sounding of the Earth's Atmosphere . It is a polar diagram where wind direction is indicated by the angle from the center axis and its strength by the distance from the center. In the figure to the right, at the bottom one finds values of wind at 4 heights above ground. They are plotted by the Vector s ec V_0 to ec V_4. One has to notice that direction are plotted as mentioned is the upper right corner.

With the hodograph and Thermodynamic Diagram s like the Tephigram , meteorologists can calculate:

  • Wind shear: The lines uniting the extremities of successive vectors represent the variation in direction and value of the wind in a layer of the atmosphere. Wind Shear is important information in the development of Thunderstorm s and future evolution of wind at these levels.



  • Temperature advection: change of Temperature in a layer of air can be calculated by the direction of the wind a that level and the direction of the wind shear with the next level. In the northern hemisphere, warm air is to the right of a wind shear between levels in the atmosphere. The opposite is true in the southern one (see thermal wind). So in the example hodograph, the wind ec V_3 from southwest meet the right side of the wind shear which means a warm Advection and thus warming of the air at that level.



FURTHER READING

  • ''Feynman's Lost Lecture — The Motion of Planets Around the Sun'' by David L. Goodstein & Judith R. Goodstein (ISBN 0-393-03918-8, W.W.Norton & Company: New York, 1996). In this book the hodograph is used to geometrically derive elliptical (Keplerian) orbits from Newton's laws of motion and gravitation.



SEE ALSO

  • Visual Calculus A related approach useful in solving a variety of integral calculus problems.



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