Watch Crash Course Geography Season 1 Episode 8 Online

There's an invisible force shaping our lives, affecting the weather, climate, land, economy, and just whether a flag looks majestic or not - we're talking about the wind! Today we’re going to go into the science of where the wind comes from and take a closer look at the major wind systems and pressure belts across the globe. We'll explain how the Coriolis effect causes the winds to curve (and makes air travel a bit more complicated), explore the doldrums and horse latitudes that could stall ships for days, and show the enormous impact the trade winds had on European colonization of the Americas.