SWINGING PENDULUM AND ROTATING EARTH

Scientist Focault made a pendulum using 200 foot long wire and 61 kg bob. He conducted an experiment using this pendulum in Paris. This large pendulum can swing for an hour before getting damped. He attached a pin at the bottom of the bob. The pin drew line in the wet sand spread on the floor. After an hour of swinging, focault observed, the line drawn on the sand rotated (tilted) by an angle of 11.25 degrees. How this happens? Let us examine.

When the heavy pendulum swings, the plane of swinging or the path of oscillation cannot get altered. While the pendulum swings strictly in one direction, the floor of the earth slowly rotates. Hence the direction of the line drawn by the pin on the floor slowly changes(tilts). After an hour, there is a observable change in the direction of the drawn line.

Focault measured the speed of rotation of the earth accurately by this experiment. This experiment finds a place in many science museum around the world.

Science update:
Swedish researchers made roses to observe a conducting polymer solution and turned them into super capacitor storing electrical energy.

Comments

THE EARTH, A SUPER ORGANISM

JOIN MY COURSE: "Become a programmer in a day with python" A man called 'love lock' (what a name) proposed a theory called Gaia theory, named after Greek Goddess. It says, "Earth is a self-regulating organism like a human being. The organic life in it interacts with in-organic matter and maintains atmosphere, temperature and environment". Hence the earth is still suitable for the life to thrive. Imagine, in a particular place, there are lot of flowers. Some flowers are white and some are darkly coloured. We know, white reflects light and heat while dark absorbs the same. White flowers can thrive in hot climate. But dark flowers requires cold climate. The absorption and reflection balances and the environment reaches average, warm temperature at which both the flowers can co-exist. This is the essence of "Gaia" theory. On our earth, the oxygen constitute 20% of the atmosphere. The oxygen level is always mai

THE PARABOLA

A jet of water shooting from a hose pipe will follow a parabolic path. What is the so special about parabola. Y= x^2 Draw a graph for the above equation. It will result in a parabola. This parabola is also called unit parabola. Any equation involving square will yield a parabola. Example: Y = 2x^2 +3x+3 (also called quadratic equation) X= 2 and -2, both satisfies the equation 4 = X^2. Parabolic equations always have two solutions. Any motion taking place freely under gravity follows parabolic path. Examples: An object dropped from a moving train, A bomb dropped from flying plane, A ball kicked upwards. If a beam of light rays fall on the parabolic shaped mirror, they will be reflected and brought to focus on a point. This fact is made use of in Dish Antenna, Telescope mirrors, etc. Inverted parabola shape is used in the construction of buildings and bridges. Because the shape is able to bear more weight. A plane

DISORDER IS THE "ORDER OF THE DAY"

Imagine a balloon full of air. The air molecules are moving randomly inside the balloon. Let us pierce the balloon with a pin. The air rushes out. Why should not the air molecules stay inside the balloon safely and ignore the little hole? That is not the way the world works. The molecules always "want to occupy as many states as possible". Hence the air goes out in the open to occupy more volume. The things always goes into disorder (entropy) and the disorder increases with time. The above statement is what we call "second law of thermodynamics". Consider a cup of coffee on the table. Suppose the heat from entire room flows to your cup of coffee, the coffee will boil and the rest of the room will freeze. Freezing means bringing things to order and arrangement. It violates the second law. Hence it will never happen. Hence heat must flow from high temperature to low temperature and not the other way. The air molecules in y

sciencecapsules

Search This Blog