Evidence that the Earth rotates in Space

In summary, the Foucault pendulum experience is strong evidence that the Earth rotates on its axis. The apparent motion of stars and the location of launch sites for space shuttles also support the rotation of the Earth.
  • #1
IvanDkiwi
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Homework Statement
Hello,
I have a school project where i must explain and proove the rotation of the earth and i was wondering if the Foucault pendulum experience was an evidence that earth does rotate on itself.
Relevant Equations
Foucault pendulum
I was wondering if the Foucault pendulum experience was an evidence that earth does rotate on itself.
 
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  • #2
Of course. The pendulum's plane of oscillation wouldn't rotate if it wasn't on a rotating object. It is strong evidence that the Earth is rotating.
 
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  • #3
Apparent motion of certain stars, parallax - motion around the sun
 
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  • #4
IvanDkiwi said:
Homework Statement: Hello,
I have a school project where i must explain and proove the rotation of the earth and i was wondering if the Foucault pendulum experience was an evidence that earth does rotate on itself.
Relevant Equations: Foucault pendulum

I was wondering if the Foucault pendulum experience was an evidence that earth does rotate on itself.

Foucault pendulum is good evidence. It might be interesting to try to do the calculation of how long a pendulum will take to do one revolution as a function of latitude. For example, if you had one at the north pole, at 30 degrees north, or at the equator, what would you see? Then find nearby museum with a big one and see if your calculation matches.
 
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  • #5
malawi_glenn said:
Apparent motion of certain stars, parallax - motion around the sun
Welcome to PF, @IvanDkiwi :smile:

Just to add to Malawi's idea above, you could find time-lapse images of the stars when looking vertically from the North and South Poles. With such sequential images, you could see that the star fields rotate in different directions at the two poles.

And what other observation(s) would you need to make to prove that it's the Earth that rotates against a mostly-stationary star field, instead of the giant field of stars rotating around Earth? :wink:

1685460638667.png

https://www.noctilucents.com/blog/the-circling-stars
 
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  • #6
Another piece of evidence, why did usa launch space shuttles in florida, and russia in kazakstan? (Closer to equator, more tangential speed)
 

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