Classical Physics

   

Correcting Misconceptions Regarding Foucault Pendulum Precession

Authors: Russell P. Patera

This work serves to correct three errors that appear in explanations of the precession of the Foucault Pendulum. The first erroneous claim is that the plane of oscillation of the pendulum remains fixed with respect to inertial space. The second claim is that the plane of oscillation rotates in the clockwise direction. The third claim is that the precession of the pendulum is caused by the Coriolis Force. A previous paper showed that the plane of the pendulum’s oscillation rotates in the counterclockwise direction, thereby disproving the first two claims. If the pendulum is perfectly decoupled from its mounting fixture in the axial or vertical direction and has zero spin rate about the vertical axis, it will still appear to precess even with zero oscillation amplitude. Without pendulum oscillation, there is zero Coriolis Force, which proves that the Coriolis force is not required for the precession phenomenon. Since an Earth fixed observer spins about the vertical axis due to the angular rate of the Earth, the pendulum’s vertical axis appears the rotate or precess in the clockwise direction.

Comments: 3 Pages.

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Submission history

[v1] 2025-07-16 20:00:11

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