A basic pendulum is a mass at the end of a string that swings back and forth. It seems simple, and it appears in most introductory physics textbooks. But it's not a trivial problem to solve for the ...

In 1851, the French physicist Léon Foucault provided an experimental proof of the Earth’s rotation using a pendulum. Although Foucault is best known for this ingenious experiment, he also made several ...

When oscillating, the pendulum slowly shifts between torsional and vertical modes of oscillation. When stretched down, the spring applies a torque to the mass to help it unstretch. When compressed up, ...

A Foucault pendulum, or Foucault's pendulum, named after the French physicist Leon Foucault, was conceived as an experiment to demonstrate the rotation of the Earth; its action is a result of the ...

THE oscillations of a long pendulum are observed to describe an ellipse the axis of which tends to set itself at right-angles to the plane in which the pendulum was started. An explanation of the ...

Because a pendulum's oscillation frequency depends on its length, not its mass, you can use different colored bowling balls for a pretty effect. By Francie Diep Published Sep 8, 2014 7:20 PM EDT Get ...