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Foucault’s pendulum takes a lickin’
05.17.2010
10:25 pm
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Foucault’s Pendulum—the original one used by French scientist Leon Foucault to demonstrate the rotation of the Earth—has been damaged beyond repair in an accident at the Musee des Arts et Metiers in Paris.

Foucault’s theory behind the instrument was to set a large, carefully calibrated pendulum swinging back and forth. If the earth was stationary, the pendulum would swing forever. Because the earth spins, the pendulum’s plane of rotation changed. In 24 hours, the rotation of the pendulum would change 180 degrees. When then pendulum’s wire cable snapped and the brass sphere hit the ground, it was dented in three places and will not be able to be fixed.

From the Times Higher Education:

In 1851, Foucault used the pendulum to perform a sensational demonstration in the Paris Pantheon, proving to Napoleon III and the Parisian elite that the Earth revolved around its axis. Such was its success that the experiment was replicated throughout Europe.

Thierry Lalande, the museum’s ancient scientific instruments curator, said that the pendulum’s brass bob had been badly damaged in three places and could not be restored.

“It’s not a loss, because the pendulum is still there, but it’s a failure because we were unable to protect it,” he said. The circumstances surrounding the accident have raised eyebrows in France.

The museum regularly hosts cocktail parties in the chapel that houses the pendulum, and Mr Lalande admitted that several alarming incidents had occurred over the past year. In May 2009, for example, a partygoer grabbed the 28kg instrument and swung it into a security barrier.

Amir D. Aczel, research Fellow in the history of science at Boston University, described the news of the accident as “saddening”.

“It is certainly one of the most important historical instruments of all time. It’s a bit like hearing that one of the statues at the Vatican has been broken,” he said.

Foucault’s experiment involved releasing a pendulum and watching the Earth rotate under its oscillation frame. Dr Aczel said that it brought “closure for Galileo” and led the Church to accept the rotation of the Earth.

 

 
Foucault’s pendulum is sent crashing to Earth (Times Higher Education)

Posted by Richard Metzger
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05.17.2010
10:25 pm
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