4 ms·
As the article notes, the Foucault pendulum is slightly more work to prove. Nothing beyond high school math, but it's less obvious than "once you point this gyr
by dwohnitmok 5y ago
As the article notes, the Foucault pendulum is slightly more work to prove. Nothing beyond high school math, but it's less obvious than "once you point this gyroscope at any star, it keeps pointing at that star no matter how that star moves, how could that be if the stars are moving but not the earth?"
- sandworm101 5y ago>> how could that be if the stars are moving but not the earth? Because maybe the earth is fixed, the heavens all move, and the pendulum is reacting to the heavens. Maybe a tidal force from the stellar spheres is imparting a slight motion on the pendulum. Maybe only objects like gyroscopes are sensitive enough to feel this force.
- dwohnitmok 5y agoOh it's definitely possible to have alternative theories but they get increasingly outlandish as you make small modifications. E.g. "how does a gyroscope know which star to point at? What happens if the gyroscope points at the middle between two stars? What happens if you point it at a star that has not yet been discovered (e.g. more powerful telescopes reveal it in the future)? Do different stars have different effects?" Trying to answer these questions makes the stellar spheres theory require more and more ad-hoc additions to support.