Foucault pendulum

The Foucault pendulum or Foucault's pendulum is a simple device named after French physicist Léon Foucault, conceived as an experiment to demonstrate the Earth's rotation. If a long and heavy pendulum suspended from the high roof above a circular area is monitored over an extended period of time, its plane of oscillation appears to change spontaneously as the Earth makes its 24-hourly rotation. This effect is greatest at the poles and diminishes with lower latitude until it no longer exists at Earth's equator.

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Source: Wikipedia · Image: Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0

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