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Old January 19th, 2020 #1
Ned Hiller
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Join Date: Aug 2018
Posts: 301
Default Trade Winds and Ocean Gyres: The Beginnings of Trans-Oceanic Travel

Did you know that though the Chinese were the 1st to build ocean going multi-masted sail powered cargo and battleships starting around 100 CE, the age of trans-oceanic travel only began because of the discovery of trade winds and ocean gyres by Portuguese explorers in the 1400s? The trade winds and ocean gyres are currents of wind and water that circulate around the coastlines of continents and encircle the oceans of the world and Portuguese ships would go into these currents and allow the currents to carry the ships to their destinations, which made continuous travel around the world possible since the ships would not be stuck in the middle of the ocean on windless days. These currents of wind and water circulate around the edges of oceans because of the rotation of the Earth, a phenomenon called the Coriolis Force which was discovered by French scientist Gaspard-Gustave de Coriolis in 1835.