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The pendulum was introduced in 1851 and was the first experiment to give simple, direct evidence of the Earth's rotation. Foucault followed up in 1852 with a gyroscope experiment to further demonstrate the Earth's rotation. Foucault pendulums today are popular displays in science museums and universities. [1]
Earth's rotation axis moves with respect to the fixed stars (inertial space); the components of this motion are precession and nutation. It also moves with respect to Earth's crust; this is called polar motion. Precession is a rotation of Earth's rotation axis, caused primarily by external torques from the gravity of the Sun, Moon and other bodies.
For example, the daily rotation of the Earth is clockwise when viewed from above the South Pole, and counterclockwise when viewed from above the North Pole (considering "above a point" to be defined as "farther away from the center of earth and on the same ray"). The shadow of a horizontal sundial in the Northern Hemisphere rotates clockwise
Scientists in a rotating box can measure the rotation speed and axis of rotation by measuring these fictitious forces. For example, Léon Foucault was able to show the Coriolis force that results from Earth's rotation using the Foucault pendulum.
The rotation has caused the planet to settle on a spheroid shape, such that the normal force, the gravitational force and the centrifugal force exactly balance each other on a "horizontal" surface. (See equatorial bulge.) The Coriolis effect caused by the rotation of the Earth can be seen indirectly through the motion of a Foucault pendulum.
The hand is driven clockwise at constant speed by the clock mechanism, and the plate is turned by the mechanism that simulates the equation of time, rotating anticlockwise as the equation of time increases, and clockwise when it decreases. If the gear ratios are correct, the clock shows solar time.
[1] [2] This is partly due to the extra velocity (and propellant [3]) required to launch into orbit against the direction of the Earth's rotation. Most commercial Earth-observing satellites use retrograde Sun-synchronous orbits to ensure that observations are performed at the same local time each pass of any given location, [4] while almost all ...
As in Figure 2, the result is the sum of a prograde and a retrograde circular polarized wave. For frequencies ν < 0.9 the retrograde wave can be neglected, and there remains the circular propagating prograde wave where the vector of polar motion moves on a circle in anti-clockwise direction. The magnitude of m becomes: [17]