Description:

Made in the workshops of the Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge, this Foucault Pendulum has been demonstrating the Earth's rotation at the Science Museum since1988. Unlike its predecessor, this pendulum runs continually, so avoiding the need to re-swing the pendulum each hour. In this 1988 view, Prof. Brian Pippard its designer is shown standing next to the moveable scale indicating time against the angle rotated. Gently raising and lowering the pendulum pivot, using a motor in conjunction with a sensor, keeps the pendulum in motion. Known as parametric amplification, it uses the same principle that keeps a child's swing in motion. The French physicist Leon Foucault conceived the display and first demonstrated it at the Parisian Patheon in 1851.