Evidence that the Earth rotates in Space

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Homework Help Overview

The discussion revolves around the evidence supporting the Earth's rotation, particularly focusing on the Foucault pendulum and other astronomical observations. Participants explore various phenomena that could indicate the Earth's motion in space.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory, Conceptual clarification, Assumption checking

Approaches and Questions Raised

  • Participants discuss the Foucault pendulum as evidence of Earth's rotation, with suggestions to calculate its behavior at different latitudes. They also mention the apparent motion of stars and the significance of time-lapse images from different poles. Questions arise regarding the interpretation of these observations and the assumptions behind them.

Discussion Status

The conversation is ongoing, with various lines of reasoning being explored. Some participants provide insights and suggest further observations, while others question the interpretations of the evidence presented. There is no explicit consensus, but productive ideas are being shared.

Contextual Notes

Participants are working within the context of a school project that requires them to explain and prove the Earth's rotation, which may impose certain constraints on the depth of discussion and the types of evidence considered.

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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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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Apparent motion of certain stars, parallax - motion around the sun
 
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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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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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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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