Maranatha High School
Final Draft: The Foucault Pendulum
Amanda Dundas (5)
Honors Algebra 2 (Group A)
Ms. Monica Chan
3 April 2017
Abstract
The Foucault Pendulum
I chose to do my project on the Foucault Pendulum because it seemed interesting and I had seen a model at the Griffith Observatory when I visited there. I am also taking physics this year as well as chemistry and have learned a little bit about the Foucault Pendulum but I wanted to do more research beyond that. What I found was very interesting. Leon Foucault invented the pendulum in 1851 which was first actual proof of the rotation of the earth. In general, the direction of the plane of oscillation of a pendulum rotates with an angular
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The ratio between the time and where the pendulum is confuses people the most. People found the sine factor to be confusing so Foucault made the gyroscope in 1852 to try and help them understand the concept of time with the pendulum. The gyroscope’s spinning rotor tracks the stars directly. Its axis of rotation turns once per day whatever the latitude, unaffected by the sine factor.
This great invention had to have a lot of thought put into it because precautions must be made to assure that the pendulum is not acted upon by any outside forces besides gravity. Constructing a mini pendulum for an experiment is very hard to do because of the precise measurements that must be made to ensure the ratios are correct and that it will swing where it is supposed to swing. For example, to start the pendulum moving, it is usually held at an angle by a string, and then burned to release the pendulum. Letting go from one 's hands, or cutting the string, could give the pendulum momentum that is not right in a particular direction creating a variable and inaccurate results. A heavy pendulum on a long, rigid wire will continue going for long periods of time, but air resistance will eventually cause the motion to lessen and stop. Museums usually use an electromagnetic drive to keep the pendulum moving. This provides additional energy to the pendulum but doesn’t affect its direction of motion.
All pendulums consist of a cable and a symmetrical weight at
Galileo was responsible for the creation of modern science becoming a discipline and its concepts and method a whole philosophical system. Galileo’s contributions involved using a telescope to examine space, inventing the microscope, disproving Aristotles laws, inventing the law of the pendulum, advocating the relativity of motion, and creating a mathematical physics. However one of his most important contributions was the fact that he conducted experiments, thus making him the first experimental scientist. Testing ideas with experiments was not a conventional approach in Galileo’s years therefore he revolutionized the way which science was conducted. Some of Galileo’s most important contributions to science include building a telescope of his own from scratch without ever seeing one in 1609. The observations that Galileo made through his telescope gave evidence that Earth is not the center of all things and that the planets orbited the Sun. Among his findings were the moons of Jupiter, the fact that the Moon’s surface was rough and covered in mountains and craters, the complete cycle of phases of Venus, and sunspots. Galileo observed the changing appearance of sunspots and concluded that the Sun rotates once per month around an axis that is perpendicular to the ecliptic plane. These observations supported the Copernican model but rejected the philosophy of Aristotle.
The unit question asks whether or not the hero of Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Pit and the Pendulum” would realistically be able to escape the descending blade swinging on a pendulum. The question is a matter of time, is it feasible for the protagonist to escape the pendulum with the allotted amount of time. Based on standard deviation and testing a pendulum of the same scale as the one mentioned in the story, the answer is no. The protagonist mentions that he believed 10-12 periods of the pendulum would result in the blade coming in contact with his torso. Using the formula developed in class for the period of a pendulum, it would take the 30 foot pendulum described in the story about 72 seconds to complete 12 periods. Testing the actual 30 foot yielded similar results within 1-2 seconds of 72 seconds. Therefore, it is fair to say that the hero is working with 72 seconds to free himself. This does not seem like enough time to develop an escape strategy, act on the strategy, and leave without getting hit bit the pendulum. The method the hero describes involves thinking about the situation and then employing the help of nearby rats. He also mentions, “Yet one minute, and I felt that the struggle would be over,” as if to imply he had 1 minute to spare. Since he was reflecting and then enticing the rats to gnaw through the rope it is not likely that it took only 12 seconds to escape. 72 seconds does not seem like enough time for the hero to complete his escape. However, the thickness of the rope and speed of the rats are factors that could affect the outcome.
The theme in “The Pit and the Pendulum” is death and hope. This is displayed in the poem when the narrator realizes the razor sharp pendulum that has been over him swaying from side to side is not an image, and is getting ready to kill him at any second. In the “Pit and the Pendulum” on page 276 it states, “It was the painted figure of Time as he is commonly represented, save that, in lieu of a scythe, he held what, at a casual glance, I supposed to be the pictured image of a huge pendulum, such as we see on antique clocks.” This means the whole time the narrator was in the dungeon he thought the pendulum was nothing but an image of time. When the rats bite through his restraints, he has a feeling of hope that he will escape and not die He feels the same thing
these things occur throughout the story but can seen at the end of the story as the walls of
The St. Francis Xavier Secondary School DECA Chapter advocated and fundraised for the leading cause for over 3 million child deaths annually: malnutrition. The campaign, entitled “Mission4Malnutrition (M4M)”, is a not-for-profit campaign which is dedicated to eliminating hunger within impoverished communities internationally. It strives to bring awareness to malnutrition, which can be defined as “the lack of sufficient nutrients which are normally obtained through food.” There are countless consequences of malnourishment, including deteriorating immunity, susceptibility to rare illnesses, as well as the physical inability to attend school. In order to eradicate malnutrition as well as its detrimental effects, M4M has partnered with two charities: Sharelife Canada and ACF International.
The Pit and the Pendulum is about a man who is sentenced to THE PIT during the Spanish Inquisition. The story starts out as describing his trial and quick sentence to THE PIT. Next as he is in
The temporal setting “oppress the character with the shape of a pendulum” (3) He fears its deadly velocity which represents his final hours of life. He feels terror of the doom that will “cut” his time on earth. As everyone knows, this symbolizes that death is inevitable.
The first pendulum clocks had a width of range 100 degrees and analysts wanted to increase that range but Huygens showed that increasing the range of pendulum swing will decrease its accuracy. Then clockmakers realized that only pendulums with small range of swing of a few degrees are isochronous.
Saint Martin de Porres High School in Cleveland, Ohio is a co-ed catholic college preparatory institution on a mission to provide a quality education and invaluable work experience to inner city youth. The vision Saint Martin de Porres High School has for each student is to attend a college or university. Thus far their goal has been achieved; however the school does not guarantee your student a baccalaureate degree. Saint Martin students usually fall under the category of first-generation college students. Their lack of knowledge and experience about higher education sets them at a disadvantage when it comes to academic success and graduation completion. Formal research has yet to be conducted on the success of Saint Martin de Porres High School students. Due to personal ties with Saint Martin de Porres High School, it is necessary to look into these issues to preserve the longevity of Saint Martin and to ensure the success of its graduates beyond high school graduation.
Today people from around the world are drawn to the mausoleum not only to view the impressive architecture, but to see the Foucault Pendulum. It is one of the largest of its kind in existence. It keeps accurate time as it makes one complete revolution every 42 hours and 48
In 1543 Nicholas Copernicus, a Polish Canon, published “On the Revolution of the Celestial Orbs”. The popular view is that Copernicus discovered that the earth revolves
He continued to do research in understanding the motion of falling objects. He was also very interested in the physics behind the pendulum. Once Hans Lippershey invented the telescope he began studying and eventually improving upon the design. Though he is often falsely credited with creating the telescope, he was the first person to use the telescope.
A pendulum is a bob suspended by a string from a fixed point and behaves in an oscillating manner. When released from an angle away from its equilibrium, it swings side-to-side in a periodic motion. The time it takes to complete one full swing is considered the period and the purpose of this investigation is to discover the effect of the string length on the period of the pendulum. This will be accomplished by recording and analyzing data with the use of data tables and graphs.
A simple pendulum consists of a mass that is attached to a string of length ‘L’ that is fixed to a point, in this case, a cork suspended by a clamp stand. This allows the mass to be suspended vertically downwards and allows it to be displayed at an angle that it swings. A period ‘T’ of oscillation is the time required for one complete swing. For this to happen ideally its mass must swing from an angle that is
With his theory tested with pendelums, almost 100 years later, his theory was used for the invention of the pendulum clock by Christiaan Huygens.