Foucault Pendulum

DCS Code: 1E20.20 Last Updated: March 27, 2026
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Purpose

A pendulum swings over a rotating platform to show that its oscillation plane remains fixed in the lab frame while appearing to rotate for a platform-bound observer. Demonstrates how inertial and non-inertial reference frames yield different observations, analogous to a full-scale Foucault pendulum on a rotating Earth.

Foucault pendulum apparatus: black tripod with colored tape markers on legs, steel central post, small dark pendulum bob, mounted on a large circular wooden parquet-patterned platform disk
Figure 1: Foucault pendulum apparatus with tripod support, central post, and pendulum bob mounted on a rotating wooden platform disk.