Kassandra Whiteford
Dr. Ruzhitskaya
Foucault Pendulum Experiment
1-30-18
Support of Foucault’s Pendulum
The Foucault’s Pendulum was named after French Physicist Leon Foucault (Sommeria). He created the experiment to prove that the Earth is in a constant state of rotation. The experiment was simple, a Pendulum was created with a weight on the end of a wire which was attached to a fixed point on the ceiling, once set in motion it continued to move and slowly rotated its position. The use of the Foucault Pendulum was successful and ended several millennial of argument over whether or not the Earth was actually in the rotation, with a simple repeatable experiment. Thus, the Foucault Pendulum experiment that proved the Earth rotates on an axis in an understandable way. The Foucault Pendulum successfully proved that the Earth is rotating and is still used and accepted as proof even today.
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Once set in motion the Pendulum stays in motion because of the force of gravity acting upon it. The experiment was set up with multiple wooden pegs attaching the two-hundred-pound Pendulum to the ceiling by both ends. The wire holding it was then burned at one end to release it into motion there were multiple pegs on the ground that were knocked over when the Pendulum rotated position (Foucault Pendulum). The way the Pendulum was released would not cause an experimental error by adding direction in the way it would if a person released it. Pendulums are known to swing in straight planes so the rotation must be caused by the Earth beneath it. The experiment was also repeated multiple times by various scientists to prove the credibly. With multiple testings’ and repeated experimental trials the Pendulum always behaved the same way. The Pendulum stayed in motion and continues to swing rotating around the room. The Pendulum mimics the way our Earth rotates proving that it is in constant
The first pendulum clocks had a width of range 100 degrees and analysts wanted to increase that range but Huygens showed that increasing the range of pendulum swing will decrease its accuracy. Then clockmakers realized that only pendulums with small range of swing of a few degrees are isochronous.
Theory: During the early part of the seventeenth century, Galileo experimentally examined the concept of acceleration. One of his goals was to measure the acceleration due to gravity, or the acceleration of freely falling objects. Unfortunately, his timing devices were not precise enough to measure the free fall time directly. He decided to “dilute” gravity by using fluids, inclined planes, and pendulums.
Describe how the direction of the tilt always stays the same. Guide the globe and control the course of its tilt to model the Earth’s movement.
Today people from around the world are drawn to the mausoleum not only to view the impressive architecture, but to see the Foucault Pendulum. It is one of the largest of its kind in existence. It keeps accurate time as it makes one complete revolution every 42 hours and 48
Throughout his tireless research, Galileo made a startling realization. While observing the earth’s tide Galileo deduced- using his
During the 1500s, scientific ideas were primarily based on ancient and medieval ideas. Earlier ideas about the universe were based on Aristotle’s principles, which postulated that the earth was stationary and was at the center of the universe. Later Copernicus overturned the medieval idea of the universe by postulating that the earth revolved around the sun. Scholars like Brahe, Galileo refined the Copernicus model by experimenting and collecting evidence. Even though there were several fundamental breakthroughs by Galileo and other scientists, the new findings failed to explain the forces that controlled the movement of the planets and falling of objects on Earth, and Sir Isaac Newton challenged to solve this ambiguity.
In 1543 Nicholas Copernicus, a Polish Canon, published “On the Revolution of the Celestial Orbs”. The popular view is that Copernicus discovered that the earth revolves
Finally, a pendulum is very similar to a guillotine in its design and function where gravity does the killing in both cases (Pg 50).
In this story, Edgar Allan Poe (such as in many of his works) uses the setting to create a dark image inside our minds. He makes this specially through darkness, therefore the character makes a connection with death. “The physical setting oppresses him in the visions of his graveyard” (1).
In 1731, as the first mechanical device that used to study earthquakes, Earthquakes that occurred in Naples inspired Nicholas Cirillo ot design this mechanical device. Cirillo’s device consisted of a pendulum that swung freely. The vibrations from the earthquake caused the pendulum to swing.
Use a protractor to measure 30° from the equilibrium. Release the pendulum at this angle.
The Method has been used many times since Galileo conducted his experiments, and it has been considered a valid way of conducting experiments since
1. To conduct a lab experiment for the oscillations of a pendulum with a yielding support
A simple pendulum consists of a mass that is attached to a string of length ‘L’ that is fixed to a point, in this case, a cork suspended by a clamp stand. This allows the mass to be suspended vertically downwards and allows it to be displayed at an angle that it swings. A period ‘T’ of oscillation is the time required for one complete swing. For this to happen ideally its mass must swing from an angle that is
With his theory tested with pendelums, almost 100 years later, his theory was used for the invention of the pendulum clock by Christiaan Huygens.