Classical Physics

    

Attitude Kinematics of the Foucault Pendulum

Authors: Russell P. Patera

Attitude kinematics is shown to be the fundamental cause of the apparent precession of the plane of motion of the Foucault Pendulum. Ishlinskii’s Theorem in attitude kinematics provides a derivation of the angle by which a Foucault pendulum precesses after one complete rotation of the Earth about its axis. A more recent kinematic theorem is used to provide a general derivation of the pendulum precession angle for any Earth rotation angle about its axis. The derivations of these precession equations enhance understanding of the phenomenon by focusing on the essential cause of the precession, while avoiding complicated dynamical analyses and associated mathematical machinery.

Comments: 9 Pages.

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[v1] 2021-01-25 11:49:58

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