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Re: Foucault pendulum

  • To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
  • Subject: [mg80258] Re: Foucault pendulum
  • From: AES <siegman at stanford.edu>
  • Date: Wed, 15 Aug 2007 04:33:23 -0400 (EDT)
  • Organization: Stanford University
  • References: <f9mq8f$r63$1@smc.vnet.net> <f9p4db$qdh$1@smc.vnet.net> <f9s1e2$7uj$1@smc.vnet.net>

> > On 12    , 14:17, dimitris <dimmec... at yahoo.com> wrote:
> >> Hello.
> >> Does anyone have notebooks
> >> demonstrating Foucault's pendulum?
> >>
> >> Thanks
> >> Dimitris
> > 
> > I mean the motion of a Foucalt's pendulum of course.

Do you mean just a Foucault pendulum in isolation?  

Or a more complex model showing a mini-Earth rotating in space with a 
mini-FP mounted on it, swinging back and forth as it's carried around on 
the mini-Earth?

Seems to me the latter would be very hard to display effectively, 
because of the huge difference in sizes involved.

And just the former in isolation would give little or no insight into 
_why_ the FP does what it does -- and convey little of the mystery of a 
real FP in some museum or science hall, with the huge ball swinging 
lowly back and forth and the ring of pins around the circle, with part 
of them knocked over.

But I'll wait to see what emerges from this thread . . .


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