The Griffith Park Observatory in Los Angeles has a Foucault Pendulum
in the main rotunda at the entry to the observatory building. I'm
guessing that its support point is about 40 feet above the bottom of
the pit where they have little pins in a holder that are knocked over
as the earth rotates below the pendulum. As I recall the cable
supporting the ball is magnetically excited in such a way as to not
influence the swing of the pendulum other than to keep it somewhat
constant. The Observatory has quite a workshop and has always been
open to sharing their work.
Please see: http://www.griffithobs.org/exhibits/brotunda.html
The observatory Contact Us Site is:
http://www.griffithobservatory.org/filmrentals.html
It has been one of my favorite places to go since I was about 6 years
old. I'm quite fortunate to live only a short distance away.
Burt, K6OQK
At 10:23 AM 7/22/2010, time-nuts-requ...@febo.com wrote
Morris Odell wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I have been asked to help with the construction of a Foucault pendulum.
This
> is a long pendulum which oscillates in a slow stately fashion in a fixed
> plane which appears to move as the earth rotates. In reality the
surrounding
> environment is really moving relative to the plane of oscillation.
>
> The pendulum requires a sustaining system to compensate for the inevitable
> energy loss with each swing. The system is located in the building and
> therefore rotates relative to the pendulum. It needs to provide an impulse
> which does not affect the plane of oscillation of the pendulum. I was
> thinking of an electromagnet located below the centre of the swing which
> would be pulsed appropriately as the bob passes over it.
>
> Has anyone here had any experience with such a system of have any
> suggestions regarding the sustaining system? This is an interesting and
> challenging project.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Morris
Burt I. Weiner Associates
Broadcast Technical Services
Glendale, California U.S.A.
b...@att.net
www.biwa.cc
K6OQK
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