Foucault Pendulum Research Articles

A Few Chapters in Astronomy

IN these 150 pages are discussed four or five of the numerous problems in astronomy, and these are handled in such a manner as to make them full of interest, both for the general reader and for the student. This book, unlike many others, is not written for the sole purpose of pouring condensed knowledge into the student's head, but for those who wish to sit down for half an hour or so and read for recreation, and so gain a fair understanding of some of the discussions contained in them, without going into too great detail. The points chiefly referred to, are, visual illusion affecting certain astronomical phenomena; the effect of the earth's rotation on certain moving bodies, as projectiles, paths of projectiles, Foucault's Pendulum and the Horizontal Pendulum; the causes of the tides; the moon's variation; and the parallactic inequality. In the last two chapters the text is accompanied by several figures.

A Foucault Pendulum at Dublin

IT may perhaps interest some of your readers to learn that Foucault's pendulum experiment has recently been performed in Trinity College, Dublin, with complete success.

Permanent Record of Foucault's Pendulum Experiment

SOME four years since, while arranging a Foucault's pendulum for use in the class-room, it occurred to me to endeavour to obtain a permanent record of the experiment, and as the results were very good, and the method simple, they may be interesting to others.

Recent Publications. The Earth and its Mechanism; being an Account of the various Proofs of the Rotation of the Earth: with a Description of the Instruments used in the Experimental Demonstrations. To which is added, the Theory of Foucault's Pendulum and Gyroscope

Recent Publications. The Earth and its Mechanism; being an Account of the various Proofs of the Rotation of the Earth: with a Description of the Instruments used in the Experimental Demonstrations. To which is added, the Theory of Foucault's Pendulum and Gyroscope

Sur la théorie de I'orientation du plan oscillatoire du pendule simple, et son application à la recherche de I'aplatissement du sphéroide terrestre

In this memoir the author first deduces a formula upon geometrical considerations alone , expressing the deviation of a free pendulum (like Foucault’s) in terms of the latitude and difference of meridians, or hour-angle; and this is done (as far as appears) without any reference to the dynamical considerations on which Foucault’s formula is deduced, assuming only the inertia of the pendulum. The author’s formula assumes the earth to be a sphere . If now, observation should give a slightly different deviation, the author infers that this would be due to the ellipticity of the earth; and in vestigates a formula geometrically, to express the ellipticity in terms of such difference; and thus by accurate observations of Foucault's pendulum in different parts of the earth, he conceives the ellipticity might be determined.

Physical demonstration of the rotation of the earth by means of the pendulum

The paper offers a comprehensive study of the motion in a central force field with respect to a rotating non-inertial reference frame. It is called Foucault Pendulum-like motion and it is a generalization of a classic Theoretical Mechanics problem. A closed form vectorial solution to this famous problem is presented. The vectorial time-explicit solution for the classic Foucault Pendulum problem is obtained as a particular case of the considerations made in the present approach. New interesting conservation laws for the Foucault Pendulum-like motion are deduced by using simple differential and vectorial computations. They help to visualize the shape of the trajectories. Exact vectorial expressions for the law of motion and the velocity are also offered. The case of the driven Foucault Pendulum is also analyzed, and a closed form solution is deduced based on the general considerations. In the end, an new tensorial prime integral for the Foucault Pendulum problem is offered. It helps to reveal in a concise form, within a single entity, all the scalar and vectorial conservation laws for the Foucault Pendulum motion.Two important engineering applications to this approach are presented: the motion of a satellite with respect to a rotating reference frame and the Keplerian relative orbital motion. The latter has a great importance in modeling the problems concerning satellite formation flying, satellite constellations and space terminal rendezvous. The classic problem of the harmonic oscillator in an electromagnetic field is also solved by using the instruments presented in this paper.