The Foucault gyroscope was a gyroscope created by French physicist Léon Foucault in 1852, conceived as a follow-up experiment to his pendulum in order to further demonstrate the Earth's rotation.[1][2][3][4]
Foucault felt that the results of his famous pendulum experiment had been misunderstood. He therefore endeavored to create an apparatus with a "body freely suspended by its center of gravity and rotating around one of its principal axes", allowing the study of a plane with "absolute directional stability".[5] The mechanical precision of Foucault's gyroscope allowed this to be proven clearly to the scientific establishment, and the gyroscope became a widely popular instrument.[6]
- ^ Dyer, S.A. (2004). Wiley Survey of Instrumentation and Measurement. IEEE Press. Wiley. p. 646. ISBN 978-0-471-22165-4.
The Foucault gyroscope with the framework suspended on a ligament is considered the original form of the north-seeking gyro.
- ^ Sommeria, Joël (2017). "Foucault and the rotation of the Earth". Comptes Rendus Physique. 18 (9–10). Elsevier BV: 520–525. Bibcode:2017CRPhy..18..520S. doi:10.1016/j.crhy.2017.11.003. ISSN 1631-0705.
- ^ Webster, A.G. (1922). The Dynamics of Particles and of Rigid, Elastic and Fluid Bodies: Being Lectures on Mathematical Physics. The Dynamics of Particles and of Rigid, Elastic, and Fluid Bodies: Being Lectures on Mathematical Physics. G.E. Stechert & Company. p. 324.
Foucault's Gyroscope. Let us now consider the celebrated experiments by which, by means of a gyroscope, Foucault demonstrated the rotation of the earth.
- ^ Tobin, William (2005). "Probing the fabric of space: from Foucault's gyroscope to Gravity Probe B" (PDF). Southern Stars. 44 (3): 12–14. Bibcode:2005SouSt..44c..12T. ISSN 0049-1640. Retrieved 2023-03-11.
- ^ Foucault 1852a: "C'est faute d'avoir compris dans son acception véritable la fixité du plan d'oscillation, que beaucoup de personnes se sont fait, de la déviation, une idée inexacte, et ont méconnu sa valeur et son uniformité. Mais, si au plan d'oscillation du pendule on substitue le plan de rotation d'un corps librement suspendu par son centre de gravité et tournant autour d'un de ses axes principaux, on a à considérer un plan physiquement défini et qui possède réellement une fixité de direction absolue. C'est pour réaliser cette conception et en obtenir de nouveaux signes de la rotation de la Terre, que j'ai composé et fait exécuter un nouvel appareil que je puis mettre dès à présent sous les yeux de l'Académie."
- ^ Bud, R.; Warner, D.J. (1998). Instruments of Science: An Historical Encyclopedia. Garland encyclopedias in the history of science. Science Museum, London, and National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution. p. 132. ISBN 978-0-8153-1561-2.