Editing Talk:2201: Foucault Pendulum

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Why are we assuming there are any side effects like these? The pendulum stops the Earth from rotating -- couldn't this include the entire planet, including the atmosphere and loose objects such as humans? There probably would be some volcanoes from the sudden loss of centrifugal force, though. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.39.23|162.158.39.23]] 13:52, 13 September 2019 (UTC)

I take it the pendulum is somewhere deep underground, which would shield Black Hat from the cataclysmic side effects?
Besides, they have several backup pendulums that while not enough to maintain rotation are sufficient to slow the half enough to preserve life.[[Special:Contributions/108.162.212.149|108.162.212.149]] 20:11, 11 September 2019 (UTC)
:I fear that the use of multiple pendulums to smooth out the catastrophy of stoping the Earth's rotation would probably just cause bits of the Earth to keep going and other bits to stop. Hey! That's plate techtonics! ''Obviously'' there are subtly dampened/purturbed pendula in secret (masonic?) temples all across the world, making all that happen! Someone likely pushed the one in Atlantis too far, one fateful day...
:(BTW, the unsaid catastrophe element reminds me of a classic [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Man_Who_Could_Work_Miracles_(story) short story])[[Special:Contributions/162.158.154.31|162.158.154.31]] 15:29, 12 September 2019 (UTC)
::These effects will of course not work on Black Hat or any other that are at the Eart Rotation controlling Pendulum at The South Pole observatory. There the Earth stopping will not have any effect :-) --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 10:53, 13 September 2019 (UTC)

If the pendulum could really affect Earth's rotation, Black Hat wouldn't need to stop the pendulum entirely; he'd only need to prevent its plane of oscillation from rotating. Another thought: if the pendulum and Earth's rotation were really bidirectionally linked somehow, there would probably be nothing Black Hat could do to alter the pendulum's plane of oscillation -- any more than he could alter the rotation of the Earth with just one human being's strength. That last thought doesn't seem to be the case within this story, though, or else the final frame's news report wouldn't have happened. [[User:Trueflint|Trueflint]] ([[User talk:Trueflint|talk]]) 20:46, 11 September 2019 (UTC)
:Who says it's the energy from Black Hat's grab specifically? Maybe the magic pendulum just tells a device in the Earth whether or not the planet should be spinning, based on the current state of the pendulum. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.46.167|172.68.46.167]] 08:15, 12 September 2019 (UTC)

Why does the description description Megan as a "professor?" She could just as easily be a teacher, a docent, a scientifically-interested parent, or just a random bystander. 11 September 2019
:Agree this is more like a tour guide if anything. I will correct this. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 10:51, 13 September 2019 (UTC)

The sentence "It stays in a fixed plane while the Earth rotates under it." and the correspoding text in explanation are wrong. It would be true only if the pendulum was located on one of Earth's poles. Elsewhere, the plane in which the pendulum moves would still rotate with respect to its surrondings, but slower than on the pole. The rotation speed is proportional to the sine of latitude. At the equator, the plane would stay fixed with respect to its surroundings. See [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foucault_pendulum#Explanation_of_mechanics Wikipedia].--[[Special:Contributions/162.158.93.207|162.158.93.207]] 23:45, 11 September 2019 (UTC)
:As a Physics teacher, I strongly support this. The fact that a Foucault's pendulum is keeping its oscillation plane constant with respect to an absolute reference frame is a common misconception, it should be mentionned as frequently as possible.--[[Special:Contributions/108.162.229.48|108.162.229.48]] 09:17, 12 September 2019 (UTC)
::The reason this pendulum works on Earth rotation is of course that it is the one placed on the South pole! That must be obvious (apart from this being a silly, though very funny, comic). :-D --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 10:51, 13 September 2019 (UTC)

The Foucault Pendulum in this comic strongly resembles the one in the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia  (both in shape and the way it is knocking over the pegs).  Perhaps this should also be noted in the trivia section?[[Special:Contributions/162.158.126.46|162.158.126.46]] 05:16, 12 September 2019 (UTC)
:Then list *all* the ones it strongly resembles. Do you think Philadelphia’s is the only one with pegs? I think that is the usual presentation. [[Special:Contributions/172.69.70.107|172.69.70.107]] 10:01, 12 September 2019 (UTC)
::A Google search reveals that nearly all of them have a weight that looks like the one in this comic, and many of them have some sort of pegs to demonstrate the circular motion over the course of a day. To put the location of any of them in the explanation (as it is now) is probably not appropriate.  If there is a significant one somewhere in the world (largest, oldest, etc), then maybe we could mention that specific one. [[User:Ianrbibtitlht|Ianrbibtitlht]] ([[User talk:Ianrbibtitlht|talk]]) 14:56, 12 September 2019 (UTC)
:::But this is the one that determines the Earth Rotation (and is placed at a pole, see above ;-) Also the one in a small museum here in Aarhus Denmark has the same setup --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 10:51, 13 September 2019 (UTC)

Do we have anything about resonance transfer being proportional to the difference in mass? [[Special:Contributions/172.68.189.19|172.68.189.19]] 16:20, 12 September 2019 (UTC)

I don't think there's any indication that this comic takes place during a physics lecture. It's more likely that it takes place in a science museum, and this is a museum tour guide explaining the Foucault Pendulum to museum visitors. [[User:Ianrbibtitlht|Ianrbibtitlht]] ([[User talk:Ianrbibtitlht|talk]]) 00:16, 13 September 2019 (UTC)
:Agree and will change this now. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 10:51, 13 September 2019 (UTC)

I don't know if it's still the case, but back in the 90s some Earth orientation work was very hush-hush military business. It turns out that really detailed models of how the Earth moves are important for targeting long-range missiles. [[User:Dfeuer|Dfeuer]] ([[User talk:Dfeuer|talk]]) 02:35, 13 September 2019 (UTC)
:Are you suggesting that has some relevance to this comic about the Foucault Pendulum? [[User:Ianrbibtitlht|Ianrbibtitlht]] ([[User talk:Ianrbibtitlht|talk]]) 03:07, 13 September 2019 (UTC)
::I'm suggesting it could relate to the notion of paramilitary forces coming for someone who's messing around with Earth orientation. [[User:Dfeuer|Dfeuer]] ([[User talk:Dfeuer|talk]]) 12:50, 13 September 2019 (UTC)

You really do not want to mess with IERRSS (IRS for short). Also, the pendulum is in an inertial reference frame to what? Can it be used to detect earths rotation around the sun as well, and the solar systems rotation around the galactic core [[User:Torax|Torax]] ([[User talk:Torax|talk]]) 10:16, 13 September 2019 (UTC)

This is one of my new favorites. Love this idea, and of course Black Hat's reaction to the possibility for mayhem.  :-) --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 10:51, 13 September 2019 (UTC)

Someone should register ierrss.org...

::[https://www.iers.org/IERS/EN/Home/home_node.html IERS.org] is already taken. They are headquartered in Germany and their email is central underscore bureau at iers dot org. You do not want to mess with their paramilitary enforcement arm, because it doesn't want to mess with you. There is no general algorithm for harmonic resonance leveraged momentum transfer. [[Special:Contributions/172.68.189.211|172.68.189.211]] 17:25, 13 September 2019 (UTC)