{"id":70959,"date":"2016-10-31T20:47:53","date_gmt":"2016-11-01T02:47:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/foucault-pendulum-installed-at-fort-lewis-college\/"},"modified":"2016-11-01T02:47:53","modified_gmt":"2016-11-01T02:47:53","slug":"foucault-pendulum-installed-at-fort-lewis-college","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/foucault-pendulum-installed-at-fort-lewis-college\/","title":{"rendered":"Foucault pendulum installed at Fort Lewis College"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><figure class=\"wp-block-image naviga-inline-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=e5f6222c-680d-4c4e-8588-91634b9c7b0b&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=2000\" width=\"1600\" height=\"861\" alt=\"Workers unpack the 200-pound ball that is part of the new Foucault pendulum in the under-construction Geosciences, Physics and Engineering Hall at Fort Lewis College. Invented in the mid-1800s, the pendulum demonstrates the Earth\u2019s rotation.\" class=\"naviga-image\" loading=\"lazy\"><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">Workers unpack the 200-pound ball that is part of the new Foucault pendulum in the under-construction Geosciences, Physics and Engineering Hall at Fort Lewis College. Invented in the mid-1800s, the pendulum demonstrates the Earth\u2019s rotation.<\/span><span class=\"credit\">Courtesy of Fort Lewis College<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><p>As the construction of the new<\/p>\n<p>Invented by French scientist L\u00e9on Foucault in 1851, the pendulum consists of a polished ball weighing 200 pounds swinging from a three-story cable over a compass rose on the floor beneath it. As the Earth rotates, it appears the plane of the pendulum swing is moving. But it\u2019s not; it\u2019s the Earth beneath it that is moving.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMore than just a decoration, a Foucault pendulum is actually a scientific instrument,\u201d FLC spokesman Mitch Davis said. \u201cThe Geosciences, Physics and Engineering Hall will be home to an array of scientific equipment to help study the Earth and beyond, including the Foucault pendulum, an invention that continues to inspire and educate since the mid-1800s.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The pendulums show different results based on where they are located in the world, Davis said. A pendulum at the North Pole makes one clockwise rotation per day. A pendulum at the South Pole also makes one rotation each day but it\u2019s counterclockwise. The plane of a pendulum suspended at the equator is fixed relative to Earth.<\/p>\n<p>The pendulum, which hangs in the northeast corner of the hall, is the gift of Grace Deltscheff, on behalf of herself and her late husband, Gustav Deltscheff. It was created by Academy Pendulum Sales in California, which specializes in Foucault pendulums.<\/p>\n<p>The hall is scheduled to be completed in November, and while professors will begin moving in equipment, extensive rock and fossil collections and their offices at that time, the building will not open for classes until the second semester begins in January.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re planning the grand opening for April when the weather\u2019s nicer,\u201d Davis said. \u201cWe\u2019d like to do some stargazing stuff and don\u2019t want people to freeze.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em class=\"mwc_shirttail\"><a href=\"mailto:abutler@durangoherald.com\">abutler@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Scientific instrument in new hall<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":70960,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[132,13,167,145],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-70959","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-fort-lewis-college","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-local-news-lead","tag-science-general"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70959","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70959"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70959\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70960"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70959"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=70959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}