hobby #229 · 2 days

Foucault Pendulum Building and Latitude Measurement

Building a long, heavy pendulum on a low-friction suspension so its swing plane slowly rotates as the Earth turns underneath it — then timing that rotation to read your own latitude off the floor. Includes a knife-edge or Charron-ring suspension to kill elliptical wander, an electromagnetic Airy drive coil under the bob to replace energy lost to air and friction without steering the swing, vibration isolation of the anchor point, and data logging the precession rate to compare against the theoretical 15°·sin(latitude) per hour.

Aug 20 5:53 PM #229 4 min

One Matchstick Clockwise, and I Can't Prove It Was the Planet

Foucault Pendulum Building and Latitude Measurement

I hung a lead weight down my stairwell to prove the Earth turns. It mostly proved my wire was crooked — but there was one suspicious clockwise matchstick I still can't explain.

mechanicalscienceengineeringspaceelectronics

Aug 23 5:40 PM #229 day 2 2 min

A Latitude Within a Degree, and I Still Don't Trust It

Foucault Pendulum Building and Latitude Measurement

I finished the pendulum, ran it all night, and read my latitude off it — within a degree. Now I can't decide if I measured the planet or just my own crooked brasswork.

scienceengineeringelectronicsmechanicalspace