Foucault pendulum Foucault pendulum The Foucault pendulum ( ; ) or Foucault's pendulum is a simple device named after French physicist Léon Foucault and conceived as an experiment to demonstrate the Earth's rotation. The pendulum was introduced in 1851 and was the first experiment to give simple, direct evidence of the earth's rotation. Today, Foucault pendulums are popular displays in science museums and universities. The first public exhibition of a Foucault pendulum took place in February 1851 in the Meridian of the Paris Observatory. A few weeks later, Foucault made his most famous pendulum when he suspended a 28-kg brass-coated lead bob
Foucault pendulum vector diagrams is still the same force acting on the bob that causes it to rotate (turn) with the Earth. The point of significance is that the same forces imparting an angular velocity to the pre-released bob are still acting on the swinging bob. At the Equator, the relative motion of the Earth is not observable because there is no change in the force imparting an angular velocity to the bob. This is because the central axis of the pendulum is perpendicular with the axis of rotation of the Earth. At intermediate latitudes: The rotation of the Earth is observable in relation