Question for those of you in the Southern hemisphere

[Silver]

I live in the Northern hemisphere and ran track last year. I noticed that up here we always run counterclockwise, and was told that because of the Coriolis effect that tracks were run clockwise in the Southern hemisphere. Is that true, or does everyone run counterclockwise due to being right-side dominant? (the outer leg would do more work)

SilverFang

[gennee]

I ran track in high school and junior college. Never really thought about it. I'm not so sure why track is run counter clockwise. It's tradition, I guess.

Gennee

[Lutin]

From memory, they used to run anticlockwise at school... Not that I ever ran, I hated Sports' Day with a passion, but thinking about watching the people who did run, I don't remember them ever running clockwise...

[tekla]

Most sports tracks run counterclockwise no matter what hemisphere they are on, Australia does run its NASCAR clockwise, and so do some European horse tracks (something about the English, and English subjects doing things backwards), but for the most part counter clockwise is the norm.  The coriolis force is enough to influence water in a drain, and and hurricanes, but its not enough to make a difference to a human running on a track.

Olympic tracks always run counterclockwise, regardless of where the Olympics were held, though I think they have been in the Southern Hemisphere twice, both times in Australia.

[Silver]

Hmm. . . thanks. I appreciate the replies.

SilverFang