GETTY Earth's rotation may have an effect on sports such as cricket

The Australian researchers may even have finally found out the reason why a cricket ball sometimes swings in the air as it is delivered. They found that the Coriolis force - which produces a sideways movement - and the centrifugal force, both resulting from the earth's rotation, affect everything from the way a cricket ball swings to a rowing scull. Dr Garry Robinson, from the University of New South Wales, teamed up with his brother Dr Ian Robinson, of Victoria University, to conduct the study.

It is possible that there are subtle effects not noticed by athletes Ian Robinson

Ian said: "We wanted to explore what effect these forces would have on sports such as cricket, where the ball is thrown or bowled; on golf - where the ball travels a longer distance; on lawn bowls, where accuracy is paramount; and on rowing and running, where large distances are covered. "Newton's laws of motion apply in an inertial system, but our rotating Earth is not an inertial system. "Two additional forces are present - the Coriolis force, and the centrifugal force.

"Generally, these two inertial forces produce noticeable effects only on the large scale, when either the time of travel and/or the path lengths are large - for example the Coriolis effect is extremely important for navigation." The brothers, whose findings were published in the journal Physica Scripta, added both the forces to the equations of motion, and also included a ground friction-type force to simulate a ball rolling over a surface, or a body moving through something resistive such as water. Their expectation was that the effect for small-scale ball games - golf, and cricket - would be fairly small. This proved to be the case, with sideways movement for a cricketer's throw from the boundary being less than one centimetre and less than 10 centimetres for a long drive in golf.

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GETTY In lawn bowls the sideways movement can be up to 2.8 centimetres

But Garry said: "There were some sports where the effect was more than sufficient to make a difference to the outcome. "In lawn bowls, for example, the sideways movement can be up to 2.8 centimetres, which is enough to affect the outcome of the game. "Even more significantly, in a two kilometre rowing race the sideways movement can be up to 40 metres if it is not compensated for, while an athlete running a four-minute mile will be subjected to a sideways movement of nearly 20 metres, again if not compensated for. "It's possible the participants in these sports aren't even aware of the potential sideways effect, and could be compensating for it without knowing.

GETTY In horse racing where the Coriolis force can 'push' a horse towards the inner rail or the outer rail

"Even if they are, we calculated that in the case of the rower, they will need to apply up to 7.5 per cent of their forward propulsion force to counteract it." He said another example is found in horse racing where the Coriolis force can 'push' a horse towards the inner rail running in one direction, and towards the outer rail running in the opposite direction, with a potential sideways movement of up to four metres in a six furlong (1,200 metre) sprint. The researchers said that this is automatically, or rather unknowingly, compensated for, and normally is likely to be totally masked by other effects. But they said the effects of the Coriolis force may sometimes be "significant" as in some countries - including Britain - horses run in a clockwise direction on some courses, and in an anti-clockwise direction on others.

Earth Hour 2017 around the globe Sat, March 25, 2017 This year's Earth Hour theme is 'Shining a light at Climate Action'. Earth Hour takes place worldwide at 8.30 p.m. local time and is a global call to turn off the lights for 60 minutes to raise awareness of the danger of global climatic change. The hour is observed every year on the last Saturday of March. Play slideshow AFP/Getty Images 1 of 16 Luna Park and Sydney Harbour Bridge