1 of 4 Foucaults Pendulum Jean Bernard Lon Foucault first publicly demonstrated his namesake pendulum in1851 at the Meridian

in the Paris Observatory and in the dome of the Panthon a few weeks later. He then took it to London for the Worlds Fair, which is celebrating its 160th anniversary. (Tobin, 2003) A seemingly simple device, Foucaults pendulum proved the Earths rotation and has since become a popular visual demonstration at museums, universities, and institutions, including the Houston Museum of Natural Science, the United Nations General Assembly in Manhattan, and the Texas A&M Physics Department in the Mitchell Building. Having visited all three of the aforementioned displays, my favorite is in College Station at Texas A& M because the Penrose tiling below is interesting, but a discussion of that would be for an extra credit math paper. Though many historians argue that the pendulum would have definitively solved the dispute between Galileo and the Roman Catholic Church (Azcel, 2003) over Copernicuss heliocentric solar system, the rotation of the Earth shown by the pendulum does not necessarily imply Earths orbit around the Sun. It could still be argued that though the Church maintained that the Earth was motionless, the Church could have still made a case for a geocentric universe with the Sun and other celestial bodies moving at different rotational velocities around the Earth, similar to the Ptolemaic or Tychonic system in place. This might explain why no one before Foucault thought of doing this particular demonstration. Historians also gloss over less well-known previous attempts to prove the rotation of the Earth and other similar discoveries. Viviani had observed the phenomenon associated with Foucaults pendulum in the 17th century, though was unable to fully explain it. (Rigge, 1913) The same year as Foucaults famous demonstration, Charles Wheatstone described a similar apparatus that precessed in the same manner as the pendulum. He placed a vibrating spring on

2 of 4 top of a disk at a fixed angle with the disk. The spring should move back and forth in a plane and as the disk is turned, the plane of oscillation changes like Foucaults pendulum. (Rigge, 1913) Any pendulum on Earth can be said to a Foucaults pendulum, but what makes a Foucaults pendulum unique is its large mechanical energy, which can highlight the rotation of the Earth. The oscillations of a simple pendulum will usually dampen and die down relatively quickly. On the other hand, the large scale of a Foucaults pendulum should reduce the effects of random air currents and air resistance. (Baker and Blackburn, 2005) Foucaults demonstration in the dome of the Panthon in Paris involved a 28-kg brass-coated lead bob suspended from a 67meter wire. (Tobin, 2003) Most current displays involve similar specifications plus a magnet to counteract friction due to the air resistance in the swings. A Foucaults pendulum must be carefully constructed so that the pendulum is allowed to swing freely in any vertical plane without torque. The only noticeable forces acting on the pendulum should be the tension in the string and gravity. The pendulum must be released from rest smoothly to ensure it swings in a plane. This can be done fairly simply by burning a string that restrains the pendulum at rest. The apparent rotation of the plane of swing will be due to the rotation of the Earth beneath the pendulum, not the actual pendulum itself. (Somerville, 1972) The plane of swing can be seen as fixed by an observer positioned in outer space, whereas someone on Earth may observe a slow rotation of the plane of swing. Since the pendulum is attached to the building, the pendulum will travel laterally with the building. However, the pendulum is suspended in such a way that it would not twist if the building were to somehow twist. Therefore, the change in the direction of gravity in relation to the pendulum is the cause of the precession of the plane of swing. It is important to note that a pendulum at the equator would not show any visible effect due to the Earths rotation, whereas a pendulum at the

3 of 4 poles would completely twist around one revolution every 24 hours. (Baker and Blackburn, 2005) This leads to Foucaults equation: Tr = 24/sinB hours, where Tr is the period of rotation of the plane of swing and B is the latitude of the pendulum. The accuracy of this equation has been shown in many experiments around the world. The pendulum on display in Houston is at about 30N, which makes its period of rotation about 48 hours. The period of its swings is about 7 seconds, which is expected from a pendulum with a length of over 60 feet. The period of swing for a pendulum can be calculated from the equation Ts = 2*sqrt(L/g), where Ts is the period of the swing, L is the length of the pendulum, and g is the acceleration due to gravity. The movement of the plane of swing can also be considered a result of the Coriolis force, which is analogous to the centrifugal force, a fictitious force introduced to describe motion relative to a rotating frame of reference. Any moving object, including air and wind currents, viewed from a frame of reference fixed in the rotating Earth, appears to be acted on by this additional, non-physical force. The direction of the force is perpendicular to the direction of motion and to the axis of the Earths rotation. It depends only on the velocity of the motion and is independent of location, and near the surface of the Earth, it is independent of latitude. However, the horizontal component of the force, parallel to the ground, is dependent on latitude. (Somerville, 1972) Foucault gained notoriety in 1851 with his pendulum and respect from the Parisian nobility, and later that year his greatest admirer, Louis-Napolon Bonaparte, orchestrated a coup dtat to become Emperor Napolon III. With the emperors support, Foucault went on to make a gyroscope, discover eddy currents, and become an esteemed scientist. However, it is his namesake pendulum that continues to inspire awe in displays around the world.

4 of 4 Works Cited Azcel, Amir. Pendulum: Lon Foucault and the triumph of science. Simon and Schuster, 2003. Accessed through Google eBooks. Link. Baker, Gregory L., and James A. Blackburn. The pendulum: a case study in physics. Oxford University Press, 2005. Accessed through Google eBooks. Link. Beynon, Zinaida About Foucault Pendulums. California Academy of Sciences, 1999. http://www.calacademy.org/products/pendulum/ Rigge, William F. Experimental Proofs of the Earths Rotation. Popular Astronomy. vol. 21, 1913: pp. 267-276. Accessed through NASA Astrophysics Data System. Link. Somerville, W. B. The Description of Foucaults Pendulum. Quarterly Journal of Royal Astronomical Society. vol. 13, 1972: pp. 40-62. Accessed through NASA Astrophysics Data System. Link. Tobin, William. The life and science of Lon Foucault: The Man Who Proved the Earth Rotates. Cambridge University Press, 2003. Accessed through Google eBooks. Link.