Anyone who enters A-block of the Science Faculty can't help but notice the pendulum oscillating between the back stairs. As you might guess, it demonstrates the rotation of the earth. But that's not all one can read from it.
The pendulum is called Foucault's Pendulum (after the French physicist, Jean Bernard Foucault) and the rotation of the plane in which the mass oscillates is due to the Coriolis force. (Although the pendulum seems to change its path during the day, it is actually the floor beneath it that is moving.) The Coriolis force is the force that you would feel if you ran to the edge of a carousel while it was rotating. It is known that the velocity at which you were running is important to the force you felt. Thus, the Coriolis force is important for space crafts leaving Earth at high velocities. It is also possible to calculate your latitude using Foucault's Pendulum.
Levent Subaşı (PHYS/IV)
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Anyone who enters A-block of the Science Faculty can't help but notice the pendulum oscillating between the back stairs. As you might guess, it demonstrates the rotation of the earth. But that's not all one can read from it.
