To: (Bob) Zumbrunnen who wrote (823 ) 9/24/2002 11:36:29 PM From: E. Charters Respond to Foucault's pendulum is another example of Coriolis. Make one your self. Suspend a surveyor's plumb from a string perhaps 6 feet long indoors in the absence any draft. Let it just graze a path in loose sand on a board. Allow it to swing for about 5 minutes. You will see it start to trace to the right about 1/4 inch in that time in Carolina. Perhaps those in Gnome, Aleyska will see better effect in that time. If you just set it on a path along a pencil line, it will be evident in time, lining on it that it goes to the right. A better fouc-up is to take flexible rod and suspend it from a washer in a ball and socket arrangement. A universal joint from a driveshaft suspended from a thrust bearing suspending about a 12 pound weight on an 8 foot pendulum should swing long enough to show the effect. Foucault's original experiment was with a 60 pound weight on a 20 foot rod. It would swing for some time.
