h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I am not a physicist, nor a scientist of any discipline whatever, and therefore have no particular name or reputation to uphold here. I simply enjoy learning and understanding the truth about things. Often I have trouble understanding, and end up working things out in my own mind.
I have read this article, and have thought about it a bit. It seems as though the coriolis effect does not indicate a rotational frame of reference, but only a rotating sphere. In addition, I can't see how the rocket fired North would land further West (assuming the earth rotates to the East, where the sun comes into view)

These are what I see as facts:
1. The rockets fired East and West fly the expected distance due to the fact that their inertial frames of reference have not changed
2. Their frames of reference have not changed because they have always been the same distance from the Earth's axis of rotation.
3. The rocket fired North follows the curve of the Earth's surface due to gravity.
4. This rocket, in following the curve of the Earth, travels closer to the axis of Earth's rotation.
5. The closer one is to the center of rotation, the slower one must travel to keep up with the rotation(at one foot away from the exact North pole, it takes an entire day to travel a circle little more than six feet around.
6. The farther one is to the axis of rotation, the faster on must travel to keep up with the rotation (at the equator, it only takes one day to travel the circumference of the Earth)
6. Since the rocket fired North started at a high East/West speed, and it approached the Earth's axis by way of gravity, it should actually be travelling faster than the land below it, and therefore land further East.
7. If the Earth were a cylinder (as an imagined space station could be) the coriolis effect would no longer be noticeable, for all points on the surface would be the same distance from the axis of rotation.

This also explains the whirling of water down a drain:

In a drain in the Northern Hemisphere, the side of the hole closest to the equator is moving East faster than the side closetr to the North Pole due to its longer distance from the earth's axis. Thus the hole is actually spinning counter-clockwise (as is the Earth, when viewed from the North Pole) However, since water has its own inertia (desire to stay still) the water on the surface, above the drain hole, seems to flow in the opposite direction of the hole, making it actually swirl clockwise!
If we were as sensitive as molecules of water, we, too, would feel the smallest effects of the coriolis effect, but we're too big and dumb, so we need to perform experiments that we can perceive.

This is how I see it. If I am wrong, I would appreciate it if these things were explained otherwise.

As always, find the Truth!
Cheers!

I agree!

Assume you have trains travelling on own rails from north to south and from south to north on the northern hermisphere. Let us further assume they are using the right pair of tracks (sorry for the Brits!). Then you will have an increased wear of the outer two of the four tracks. This effect really is visible!

Just as Not Really Acid pointed out, the trains running from north to south must change their speed vector by which they rotate with the earth. If the track started at the north pole, it would initially be zero. And on the equator it is fast and pointing to the east. So the speed difference vector points to the east. The difference in the speed vectors accounts for an acceleration, which accounts for the Coriolis Force (f = m a). I think that the word force is used in the way Newtons Law meant it to be, so why not call it force?

The right track of the rail (which is the left track when seen from the north pole) pushes the south-bound train to the east, because the earth is moving (rotating) to the east and the train has to catch up with this movement, so it wears faster.

The north-bound train is slowed down in his movement to the east, so the right track is pushing it to the west and wearing faster.

I think the water swirling down a drain is more due to the water being magnetic, and being affected by the earths magnetic field.

Does the Coriolis effect also cause Wind speed to be higher from the east, on average, pushing the trains sideways against either track?