Abstract
PROF. GREENHILL gives currency to quite an erroneous idea, in last week's NATURE (p. 50). He says βin the Foucault experiment of the pendulum which shows the rotation of the earth, the slightest current of air will destroy and reverse the desired motion; so that it is advisable in showing the experiment to have an elastic ball concealed in the palm of the hand, which can send a slight current of air on the bob of the pendulum, and thus accelerate the initial precession of the plane of the vibration so as to gratify the eyes of the audience and diminish their impatience at the slowness of the motion.β If Prof. Greenhill will go to the Western Galleries of the South Kensington Museum any day, he will be able to see a Foucault pendulum fulfilling its purpose without being particularly protected from draughts, and without the accessory puffs to which he refers. The pendulum is suspended in a place where people are continually passing to and fro, yet its plane of vibration always rotates in the same direction as watch-hands, or rather the table under the pendulum turns in the opposite direction. I have watched the pendulum dozens of times without seeing it fail.
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R., G. The Foucault Pendulum Experiment. Nature 51, 79 (1894). https://doi.org/10.1038/051079c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/051079c0
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