Gaspard Gustave de Coriolis first described the Coriolis effect in 1835 using mathematics . The mathematical expression for the Coriolis force appeared in an 1835 paper by a French scientist Gaspard-Gustave Coriolis in connection with the theory of water wheels , and also in the tidal equations of Pierre-Simon Laplace in 1778 . Early in the 20th century , the term Coriolis force began to be used in connection with meteorology .