Challenges in the design of Foucaults Pendulum.

NIUS Midterm Report

Abstract: The theory behind Foucault pendulums plane precession and the design aspects are briefly discussed. Vivek Sarma R , IIT M, Prof. Rajesh Khaparde, HBCSE, TIFR.

NIUS PROJECT Batch 7 (2010 - 2011) Mid-term Report

Title: Foucaults pendulum design.

Name: Ravuri Vivek Sarma, Affiliation: IIT Madras, Chennai.

Mentor: Prof. Rajesh Khaparde, Affiliation: HBCSE, TIFR, Mumbai.

Acknowledgement:

This work was supported by the National Initiative on Undergraduate Science (NIUS) undertaken by the Homi Bhaba Centre for Science Education Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (HBCSE - TIFR), Mumbai , India.

Signature & Date: March 8th, 2011.

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Plot: 1. Motivation 2. Theory: - Foucault Precession. - Intrinsic Precession 3. Design: - Why cant we observe Foucault Precession - Conception - System 1 : Suspension & Wire - System 2 : Bob & Circuits

4. Some more aspects 5. Test of Performance 6. Conclusion

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1. Motivation:
A Foucault pendulum demonstrates the rotation of the earth but the details are subtle. By Foucaults time, the rotation of the Earth was no longer in dispute, but there was still no direct way to demonstrate or measure it. This was first time demonstrated by Leon Foucault, a visionary, who did lot of pioneering work, inspiring his later generations. His words of invitation YOU ARE INVITED TO SEE THE EARTH TURNING still astonish people and inspire, at the first eyeshot itself. Since 1851, when Jean Bernard Leon Foucault hung his 67m pendulum at the Pantheon in Paris, significant number of people tried to make it appeal to the common man by this simple experiment, yet profound that earth rotates. Nevertheless, very less number of Foucault pendulums exist around India. This fascinating demonstration of Earths rotation led us to propose to build a one, which will allow us to observe and measure the precession of oscillation plane. Although the theory looks very simple that plane should precess, realizing that is really a very challenging task. Thats why, this still finds its own place in most of the famous museums and celebrated places like United Nations, Smithsonian Institutea and so on.

2. Theory:
2.1. Foucault Precession: We know that Newtons laws are valid only in inertial frames, which are fixed in deep space, amidst of stars (Our focus on F = ma). But for practical purposes, daily we deal with only Non inertial frames. Here, it assumes the form

F = FReal/Physical FPsuedo
From the discussion of motion in a non inertial frame of reference, we derive a much general expression for the expression of force. It says that: To an observer in the rotating coordinate system, the effective force on the particle is given by:

Feff = mar = F - m R f - m (r) m (r) 2m ( Vr)

Where, the first term F is the total force acting on the particle as measured in the inertial frame. The second and third appear because of the translational and angular acceleration, respectively, of the moving coordinate system relative to the fixed system. Third quantity is Centrifugal force term, which is directed outward from the centre of the rotation. And the last term is called Coriolis force term. And here, our concern is about the Coriolis force.
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To keep it simple, body experiences an orthogonal force (to its velocity) when observed from a rotating frame. This force magnitude depends on of frame and its velocity. And this Coriolis Effect is described as the apparent deflection of moving objects when they are viewed from a rotating reference frame. Now, this Coriolis force advances the plane of oscillation of pendulum by an amount of

F = Earth Sin latitude

Where Earth is the sidereal rate of rotation of the Earth, latitude is the latitude of the pendulum measured from the equator, and F is the Foucault precession rate. Ideally, this precession of pendulum motion is caused by the non-inertial nature of the reference frame tied to the surface of the Earth. It takes nearly 23 hours and 56 minutes for Earth to complete a 3600 rotation. Now, for pendulums plane, there will be a dilating factor depending on the latitude, and it will be clockwise in northern hemisphere. At Mumbai, which is in Northern Hemisphere, the latitude is 180 55. Hence it takes approximately 73.72 hours to complete one full rotation of the plane of oscillation, which almost comes to 4.880 advance per hour. The time period of the pendulum is given by T = 2.0060 L

2.2. Dynamics and Intrinsic Precession

Now, lets take a close look at the dynamics of the bob. No matter how carefully ever we launch it, bobs trajectory will never be a straight line. When we project it down to the bottom plane, it will be an ellipse with small minor axis (Fig. 1).
Y - Axis

X - Axis

Figure 1: Ellipsoidal motion.

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This can be attributed to certain asymmetries and perturbing effects like anisotropy of the suspension system, inelastic yielding of the support and asymmetry in the drive coil. Practically, how much ever we try, b will be non zero. This non zero b, brings in much more problems. The ellipsoidal motion itself, is associated with a precession (Fig. 2), that changes the plane of bob with the angular velocity

4 2

Where A = Area of the ellipse = ab, L = Length of the pendulum, T = Time period.
Y - Axis

X - Axis

Figure 2: Numerical simulation (using Mathematica) of a spherical pendulum with a large ratio of semi-minor to semi-major ellipse axes. The arrows indicate the counterclockwise intrinsic precession, in the same sense as the motion of the pendulum.1 Here, the sense of the precession is same as that of the elliptical motion. This results in the period being slightly different in one plane of the oscillation than the other. Also, this will introduce a small distortion in the central oscillation frequency itself from to

= (1 -

1 + 16

This fractional change in frequency is due to a finite semi minor axis b, but turns out to be of order 10 -7, and therefore, negligible for our discussion.

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Now, we can say that overall precession is from the superposition of these two individual precessions (Predominantly, at least to first order). It may so happen that undesired one gets to much higher values, thus masks the Foucault precession or, both may destructively add up to zero. Hence we need to take care of this serious distortion, while designing a Foucault pendulum.

3. Design 3.1. Why cant we observe Foucault precession easily?

Now, lets ask a simple question. What prevents us to observe this precession in normal simple pendulum, if theory tells us that there should be all this precessions and so on? The reasons are thought to be the following:

1. It needs lot of time to be observed, as at lower latitudes, it takes more than 2 days for full rotation. 2. Big to F ratio, corresponding to small lengths that we use and the comparable bs that get induced, that causes errors in the turning rate grow more troublesome rapidly as the length is reduced.

3.2. Conception
Now, Let us observe at the motion of the pendulum along the ellipse. At any extreme (x = a), there is only transverse motion, with b as large as possible. (Here, we know that a is 0). So, if we are planning to drain the energy of the pendulum, that is responsible for its transverse motion, it is ideal to drain its energy at this position. Whatever the kinetic energy we take off the pendulum, will be coming from the b component and hence, it ultimately results in minimizing b. This will be done by Electromagnetic breaking. Also, at its centre position, one can easily conclude that it will have Kinetic energy corresponding only to a. And hence, if we impart energy to it, it will be induced into a, to restore the lost energy to battle with viscous forces. This will be done by the Driving system. After seeing the total precession rate, we need to discuss about the errors that might creep in, also, our trade offs such that we optimize design. They are: 1. Method of gripping the suspension wire at the top. 2. Error in the drive system for maintaining the amplitude 3. The means of limiting the ellipticity 4. Lack of symmetry in the bending characters of the supporting wire. 5. The air movements instantaneously effecting, asymmetrically.

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3.3. System 1: Suspension & Wire

Figure 3 shows how one can achieve axial symmetric suspension of cable at the top, using Chuck. Also, we can employ a socket which is free to rotate at the top. Steel wire of the smallest diameter that will not break due to fatigue over long period is used. This is important because the error in the rate of turning of the pendulum introduced by the asymmetry of its internal friction increases very rapidly with diameter2.The minimum acceptable diameter is a function of both angular amplitude and weight of the bob. Optimum diameter can be chosen according to the values we use in the experiment and it varies from case to case.

Figure 3: Suspension at top3.

3.4. System 2: Bob and Coils.

Coming to bob, high density metal is to be used as to minimize the air friction. Also, it will have more inertia. The spherical shape is not necessary, as long as we maintain cylindrical symmetry about the vertical axis. Bob can be designed to have tapered structure at both top and bottom such that we can grip it tight with both wire and permanent magnet respectively.

Figure 4: Permanent magnet with bob and the energy supply unit4.
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Previous damping devices used the principle originated from the mechanical Charron ring5, where damping of the transversal component is achieved by mechanical friction losses produced by a part of the pendulum slipping along the inner circumference of a ring when the longitudinal component of oscillations approaches its maximum amplitude. But now, the design is entire electromagnetic, which uses a single permanent magnet6 playing key role for many jobs. I. Eddy current damping ring:

We ensure that most of the time, the magnet passes over a nonconductive medium. Whenever the bob approaches the maximum amplitude of the longitudinal component of oscillation during each swing, the magnet passes over the surface of the metallic ring, inducing eddy currents. The braking effect, proportional to the velocity, is rather strong for the transversal component of oscillations, which reaches the maximum velocity at this point. In this way, the energy that is responsible for transverse motion will be drained by the Eddy current ring, just within last 0.5 1 mm of the amplitude. II. Driving System:

This system consists of two simpler systems. They are Detection coil and Driving coil.
1. Detection Coil: Here, we make use of a Hall Effect sensor. As we know, the output voltage of it varies with respect to the magnetic field. Hence by properly considering the time intervals that we are going to play with, We make a filter circuit such that as soon as the voltage goes above a certain threshold, we enable the Driving coil with proper delay such that by that time, bob will be at a pre calculated position.

Figure 5: Layout of elements. H is Hall sensor. D is Driving coil. C is Conducting Eddy current ring. P is maximum amplitude in plane of oscillation of Foucault pendulum.

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2. Driving coil: Coming to this part, this is an electromagnetic coil with its centre at the mean position of the oscillation of the pendulum. This is the only point that bob will be passing through during its journey in its motion in any plane of oscillation. So, every time when it comes here, we drive a calculated current in this coil , which will be enabled by the detection coil in the direction that we want , ( hence we are expending some energy here, which is actually compensation for energy losses of bob to ambience) and can either pull or push at the centre. Here, we need to calibrate Magnetic fields and the voltage response of Hall sensor to those fields, and make appropriate filter circuits, with proper delay elements. Also, we need to ensure there will not be any back swings in coil. We have to make a circuit to couple it with the driving coil such that there will not be any intersection in the responses of driving coil reacting to the bob coming from opposite direction. The coupling circuits are very well established, for example, A Foucault's pendulum design
7

explains a thorough design.

4. Some more aspects:

Though there will be a lot chaotic behavior at the beginning right after the pendulum is set to oscillate, (like not even making a regular ellipse), all that will die down quickly as the electromagnetic braking system is an efficient design. All the metal parts whatever we use have to be non-magnetic. Entire energy being given to system = losses due to eddy currents + friction at suspension + Energy losses due to viscous drag If a break occurs in the wire, it will be very close to the top, because the bending moment is maximum here. So, a mechanism has to be employed such that even if the wire breaks, the entire setup gets damaged to only a little extent.

(It is worthwhile to note here that at the grand place where Foucaults demonstration was made and celebrated, the Paris Technical museum, the original 1851 Foucaults Pendulums cable got snapped, causing irreparable damage to the 28 kg brass bobb.) At the end, we need to check once for the orientation of the coils beneath the bob at the centre such that they are exactly symmetric. Correct height of them can be experimentally fixed by trial and error method, after watching a few kicks. At the latitude where we are proposing to build a one, the turning rate is very close to 4.880 advance per hour and therefore, one might think that it might take 73 Hrs for a cycle of turning. But, in fact, the pendulum returns to the same plane of the swing in half that time, as it just need to turn 1800 to comeback to same plane. Here, we have to disturb the system to the minimal possible level. So, it is best to allow giving light push every time, than compensating energy loss for N cycles at a single stretch, which may modify the entire set up (the turning rate).

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One advantage in the design is that errors are atoned to first order despite of the fact that all of them vary from quadrant to quadrant, but ultimately average up. As a remark, we would like to mention as a side note that Leon Foucault first identified and named the Eddy-current phenomenon.

Hence we understand that though simple in principle, the driven Foucault pendulum presents technical difficulties which prevent its achieving the full theoretical expectations, as it has the advantage of accumulating effects.

5. Tests of performance:
Here, the design and experimental work will be limited by practical engineering, and it is difficult to find a detailed explanation for the remaining deviations from the theoretical value of the Foucault rotation velocity. However, the accepted tolerance values which validates to the correct Foucault rotation are less than 2 %.

6. Conclusions:
The design is presented. Making a working model and analyzing the details is expected to take one month.

7. References:
1. Schumacher, Short Foucault Pendulum Free of Ellipsoidal Precession: arXiv:0902.1829, 2. Crane, Foucault pendulum: wall clock, Am. J. Phys. 63 (1), Jan 1995. 3. D. W. Miller and G. W. Caudill, Driving mechanism for a Foucault pendulum, Am. J. Phys. 34, 615, 1966. 4. Crane, Short Foucault pendulum A way to eliminate the precession due to ellipticity, Am. J. Phys. 49 (11), Nov.1981. 5. Charron, Bull. Soc. Astron. France 45, 457 (1931). 6. Foucault pendulum with eddy-current damping of the elliptical motion, Rev. Sci.lnstrum. 55 (10), October 1984. 7. A Foucault's pendulum design Rev. Sci. Instrum. 81, 115102 (2010).
a b

Recently removed. Website: http://www.si.edu/Encyclopedia_SI/nmah/pendulum.htm . Web: Times Higher Education - Foucault pendulum is sent crashing to Earth.

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