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A Foucault pendulum is simply a pendulum which can oscillate freely in any plane so that even if we rotate the stand, the plane of the pendulum remains stationary.
Imagine a person rotating with the stand. With respect to us, the plane of the pendulum is stationary and it is the person who is rotating. But with respect to the person he himself and the stand is stationary.
So it must be the plane of the pendulum that is rotating.
This effect can be observed even if we don't rotate the pendulum. This is because the earth is rotating.
We can see that the earth and the person is rotating while the plane of the pendulum remains stationary.
But the person will see something different.
With respect to him it is the plane that is rotating.
This effect still occurs even if the pendulum is not directly at the poles. But the speed of rotation decreases as we move away from the poles. In fact we can find our latitude just by measuring the time period of a Foucault pendulum. Also Foucault pendulum is an excellent demonstration that shows that the earth rotates.
Spherical coordinates: • Spherical polar coordi...